When She Was Seven

Disclaimer: The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy belongs to Square Enix.

Summary: When Paddra Nsu-Yeul first realizes she likes Noel Kreiss as more than a friend, she is seven and he is ten. Noeyuru. Noel x Yeul.

Yeul sat with Kimi-a girl that had taken to following her around one day-braiding her long brown hair and watching Noel move through the steps Caius had shown him a day before. Unlike the rest of the boys in the community, Noel held a real blade—a short sword, she recalled Caius calling it.

"Seriously?!" Noel had exploded as Caius had extended him the short blade. The dark purple haired man gave a small smile at Noel's excitement while Yeul simply tilted her head. 'Is he truly ready for something like that?' she worried. Still, she didn't question Caius on how he would train his successor.

"Be careful that you don't cut yourself with it," Caius had warned the eight year old before stepping over to his young charge. Noel smiled widely at the young seeress. Yeul smiled tentatively back. She understood that Noel would protect her alongside Caius. She understood that the other villagers believed him to be too young to start training. But she was just happy that Noel was around.

"You see, Yeul, I told you it wouldn't be long before Caius trusted me with a sword!" Noel told her teasingly. Yeul simply nodded. She hadn't exactly argued with him over it, but she had expressed her doubt.

"Just don't lose an arm or toe, okay?" Yeul asked. Noel grinned. His blue eyes were exceptionally warm in the face of her worry. Caius had become a silent spectator in the whole thing; his purple eyes staring somewhere between them.

"I won't!" He had promised.

So far, he seemed to be keeping that promise. He had only nicked himself a few times since getting the short sword. None of the cuts had been deep and he hadn't even known he had gotten them until he realized he was bleeding, but Yeul knew. Just to be certain he was still okay, Yeul glanced away from Kimi's hair and back to him. He was moving gracefully through the steps; not once did the sword get too close to one of his extremities. He swung the blade in a wide arch, twisting his waist only slightly as he did so. His feet parted just the amount of space to keep him balanced. He then shifted his foot a little and swung the blade upward, stopping the point reached above his head.

"Why is he using a real blade?" Kimi's almost loud question broke Yeul from her study. She blinked as Kimi barely tilted her head. Yeul had started braiding Kimi's hair when she noticed the girl seemed to get caught on everything. Kimi tried to play with the boys—a very difficult task when her hair reached her ankles. It made her an easy target in tag. All the boys had to do was wrap their hand around a strand of her hair. 'It's a good thing she has a strong scalp,' Yeul thought.

"So that he can adjust to the weight and danger of a sword," Yeul answered simply as she laid the left section of hair over the middle and repeated it with the right. She was only halfway down the girl's back, but that was alright. Yeul was patient and Kimi wanted to spend time with the quiet seeress.

"Why is he training?" Kimi asked.

"Can we…take a break, Caius?" Seven year old Noel panted. His arms were shaking from fending off Caius' blows. Yeul bit into her bottom lip because she knew how Caius would take such a question. The man's purple eyes hardened.

"If you can't handle this then maybe you aren't suited to be Yeul's guardian," the man said coolly. Yeul stepped toward the boy, expecting his eyes to fall to the floor; but pride filled her when he looked Caius dead in the eye and pushed off the wall. He puffed his small chest out and shook his head.

"No!" He exploded. "I can do this!" He glanced to her. His determined blue eyes fixed on her, "I will protect her!" He vowed. Yeul smiled encouragingly. He nodded slightly at her. Appreciation shined in his eyes. They looked away from one another at the same time. Just in time to see Caius' proud smile.

"Very well."

"Stand up, please," Yeul suggested since they were nearing the end of the log and it was becoming more difficult to braid. Kimi immediately did as she asked and tried not to fidget as she waited for her answer. "He is training to protect me," Yeul answered her question. She looked away from Kimi's hair for a second time and found Noel's eyes. He had paused in his training to listen to the conversation. Yeul smiled slightly at him. He blushed and looked away from her. She bit into her bottom lip and looked back down at the braid she was still working on. For a moment, she wondered on his blush as she pulled Kami's braid slightly tighter.

He started blushing whenever she looked at him only recently. It wasn't full blown like some of the ladies in town when Caius spoke to them. It was light, almost non-existent, but it stood out against his slightly tanned skin. The ladies in town blushed, she knew, because they thought Caius was cute. She had overheard them giggling about him once when she was in the square getting flour for rolls. 'Does that mean Noel thinks I'm cute?' She wondered as she made yet another twist in Kimi's hair. 'He must. Why else would he blush?' She felt heat rising to her cheeks at the idea. She wasn't deaf to all of the other girls her age whispering about Noel. She knew that they all thought him to be cute and that they entertained ideas of being with him when they were older. She had simply smiled indulgently when they asked her what she thought of him and answered, "He's a good friend to me." But now she felt wondered if that rush of irritation she had felt at them was something more. Like jealousy. She bit into her bottom lip and looked back toward him. 'He is cute, but that's not all he is…'

"But the whole town will protect you," Kimi pointed out, breaking her once again from her rampant thoughts. Shame trickled through her for a minute. Kimi was here trying to talk to her and she kept drifting off into her own world. It took a second for Yeul to retrace what Kimi was answering too. Yeul made a small humming noise as she worked that Kimi took to be acknowledgment. She didn't clarify any further; she simply continued to braid Kimi's hair. Soon, the only sound in the small clearing was Noel's steps on the clay and the swish of his short sword through the air. In the silence, her mind and eyes wandered again. She found herself staring at her friend even as her hands continued twining Kimi's hair into a tight braid.

Three. That was when she first met Noel Kreiss. Sure, she had seen him around the town square, but she hadn't truly spoken to him or heard his voice. She always wondered just why he was there every day; why he would always glance toward her when she was outside before reluctantly walking back to his house. It wasn't until Caius had returned from one of his journeys with the young boy at his side that she knew his name.

"Yeul," Caius called her warmly, "This is Noel Kreiss," he motioned toward the familiar boy with the dark brown hair and expressive blue eyes. "He is going to be training under me from now on." She smiled cheerfully at him. He blushed slightly and smiled timidly back.

As if feeling Yeul's eyes on him, Noel glanced away from his routine once again. His eyes widened as he found her staring at him. He quirked an eyebrow as if to ask if she was alright. Yeul flushed and looked back down at the braid she was almost finished with.

"How is your studies coming along?" Yeul posed quietly. At age six, all of the girls in the town were expected to take lessons. Kimi opted to take lessons in healing. Yeul herself had opted for a little bit of everything. Her concern for her guardian and Noel had prompted her to take healing lessons. Her guardian's inept at cooking had prompted her to take that lesson. Her curiosity about the process in making clothes had driven her toward that lesson. While the protectors were off doing whatever it was they did, Yeul was in lessons. It gave her something to do other than sit around all day and all of the women seemed very enthusiastic to teach her. Boys had a lot less available to them. There was hunting lessons, construction lessons, and blacksmith lessons. All of these lessons Noel took. Most of the boys opted for just one, but Noel wanted to be well-learned so that he could provide for his family one day. It could have just been her imagination, but she had sworn he had looked at her when he told Caius that. Again, she felt a blush rising to her cheeks.

"It's going great," Kimi said. "Ms. Demi showed us the correct way to bind a wound the other day." Kimi launched into her tales, completely forgetting that Yeul had been in the lesson too, but that was okay. Yeul welcomed the distraction. She paid close attention. "Granted, it's kind of hard to bind a wound when your dummy is made of straw, but we made it work, huh?" Yeul made a small noise of affirmation since Kimi couldn't see her nod. She pinched the end of the finished braid and slipped her hair tie off of her wrist. She wrapped the tie tightly around the braid and then started to gather Kimi's hair into a bun. She fastened the braid in place with a black pronged clippie. At one end of the clippie, there were holes for the prongs that made up the other side. Kimi didn't move until she heard the small snaps of the clippie as the sharp edges locked in their slots. "Thank you!" Kimi hugged the older girl. Yeul, used to the girl's hugs by now, wrapped a hand around the girl's back and hugged her back. Kimi broke the hug fairly quickly (before the older townspeople saw her hugging the seeress).

"You're welcome," Yeul said as Kimi stepped back. The brown headed girl smiled widely. Yeul awarded the girl a tiny smile. She was distracted from her smaller friend by movement down at the square. Caius was moving through the crowd toward them.

"Well, I'm gonna go…" Kimi excused herself awkwardly. Yeul watched Kimi race away to join the other children and suppressed a small sigh. Caius still intimidated all of the other children; his unemotional face and slightly cold eyes always deterred them from coming around when he was with her, but she didn't resent her guardian for it. He couldn't help it. She only wished that the other children could see the way his cold eyes warmed to Noel and her. She wished they could see the small smiles he gave them when they said something funny or did something he found amusing. They were still just too afraid of him to give him a chance. She wondered if it ever bothered him that children ran the other way. Caius' walk toward them was paused momentarily by a woman. She recognized her. It was Pica, her cooking coach. The woman had a small blush on her cheeks as she spoke to him about something. Yeul looked away from them.

Now left with no distraction, Yeul's eyes drifted over to Noel once more. The other children's reluctance to be around Caius made her treasure the older boy all the more. Yeul crossed her legs at her ankles and continued to watch him. Caius' impending arrival forgotten for a moment as she was lost in her thoughts. She wondered what Kimi and the other children saw when they looked at Noel over here with her and Caius. Did they believe him brave like she did? To demand that Caius teach him, a six year old child, the way of the sword. Yeul bit into her bottom lip.

'He's brave. Determined. Resilient,' she thought admirably. 'Kind. Funny. Optimistic.' She added as an afterthought. His blue eyes were filled with determination as he moved through his steps. His lips were set in a firm determined line. He moved with grace when children at his age should be clumsy. His body gave no hints of faltering even though he had been training for at least three hours. She bit into her bottom lip again and wondered if he was tired. She could see the rapid rise and fall of his chest as he moved. She could see the sweat clinging to his hair. She furrowed her brows.

Annoyance at Caius sprung up in her. He left them alone for three hours with the command that Noel not stop until he got back. Caius had proven not be good at time management before, but this was ridiculous. What if he had been gone for more than three hours? Noel was stubborn; he wouldn't listen to her if she told him to take a break. She looked away from Noel to see Caius parting with Pica. Yeul stood up from the log she was sitting on and walked closer to Noel. He glanced over at her, but didn't stop. She reached out and placed a hand on his elbow. Her touch froze the arm he had the short sword in. It was only now that he wasn't moving that she could feel the shaking of his arms.

"I'm sure you can stop now," she told him. She looked toward Caius' approaching figure and raised her eyebrows. Even though the man didn't hear her, he could still see what she wanted. He nodded. Noel waited until Yeul had let go of his arm to lower his blade. He gave a grateful sigh and slid the short sword into the sheath at his side. Yeul stepped away from him to get him a glass of water. She glared heavily at Caius as she returned to Noel. He took the glass from her hand.

"Thank you, Yeul," Noel whispered. She smiled softly at him, sensing that he was thanking her for more than just the water.

"You're welcome, Noel," she told him. He smiled.

"I am sorry it took me so long," Caius apologized when he reached them, "I am afraid hunting is not my forte anymore…"

"It's fine. Just a little endurance training, right?" Noel asked. Yeul huffed quietly and walked away from the boys. Caius watched the younger girl go with a small frown. Noel crossed his arms over his chest as she watched her walk away. 'Did something happen with Kimi?' he wondered. Without a second thought, he took off into the house after her.

"Hey!" He called out. Yeul stopped instantly and turned to look over him; her small hand rested on the wall. "Is everything okay?"

"He pushed you too hard today," Yeul told him. Noel blinked in surprise. His hand instantly raised up to rub the back of his neck. He wanted to argue with her, but her tone left no room for it. Still, the fact that she had gotten so annoyed warmed him. After all, it wasn't really annoyance but care. She was protective of him.

"I'll be okay," he reassured her warmly; a warm smile drifted onto his lips. Yeul blushed and looked away from him. The warmth in his eyes made her heart race. Yeul nodded before walking away. Noel stood in the archway for a few minutes, trying to get his smile under control. Caius appeared behind him just as his smile finally fell.

"She is angry with me," Caius stated simply. "I promised her I would not push you too hard."

"You didn't," Noel argued quickly and honestly. Caius looked down at him; amusement and fondness shined in the older man's eyes.

"That is not how she sees it."

(A/N: Ah…This idea occurred to me while I was working on another Yeul/Noel fan fiction. I'm not sure where I intended this one to go, but I hope you guys enjoyed it all the same.)