Delivering the News
by Meimi

Yusnaan had built up considerably since the last time he'd been through; though Noel supposed that stood to reason. Time may have stopped working properly, but it didn't stop the Chaos. A world that had previously been dangerous, was now deadly in every sense of the word. It wasn't safe outside the cities, so the people who hadn't died outright flocked to them in droves. Of course, that didn't mean the cities were entirely safe either. People were still people: some good, some utter wastes of oxygen. It was a good place to find work for someone like him. Well, it would've been, but he already knew Yusnaan had a "hero". Too bad that's why he was here. To see the hero... and probably get his ass beaten into paste.

He deserved it. He would freely admit that much. Hell, he was almost looking forward to it. It would take his mind off of things. For awhile.

Heading towards his final destination, Noel weaved his way through the streets and half listened to the ongoing chatter that surrounded him. They all sounded so happy, talking about him, their hero. What he had done for them personally. What he had done for the city. All the ways he'd helped Yusnaan prosper since the Chaos. Some were even talking about getting him to lead them, maybe even as a ruler. Him. A king. How fortunes could change at the drop of a hat. But it was a tragedy all the same, Noel knew that much and more. To have all of this now, and yet still have lost everything that mattered. The burden had to be heavier than a mountain by now.

Why had he come? The news he brought... it wasn't good. It would just add to that burden. It was already killing him. Another gone. And nothing to be done about it. But... it wouldn't have been right to not make the journey. Noel had a responsibility. Someone had to deliver the unwelcome news.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Oh. Snow. Damn, he'd gotten so lost in his own thoughts that he'd arrived before he was ready. Assuming he'd ever be ready. "Nice to see you again too, Snow," Noel said evenly as he turned around and looked at "The Hero" for the first time in ages. He was... different, amazingly. Though, perhaps it shouldn't be all that surprising. Snow had lost everything to get to this point (just like him). That would change even the most stubborn of asses. And it certainly had. Somewhere along the line, Snow had finally lost that damn coat. And he was... darker, angrier maybe. Hopeless. Noel felt his chest tighten up again. He shouldn't let his mind wander, it always went to the places he didn't want it to go.

"What are you doing in my city, Noel?" Snow barked out again, his impatience obviously growing. "You're not my most favorite of people, and you know that."

How to say it? What to do? He just wasn't sure anymore. Maybe... maybe he'd get lucky and Snow would kill him. But no, Snow wasn't a killer and he certainly wasn't going to roll over for it either. Maybe everything was gone now, but... he couldn't stop. He'd always fight. That's... that's how it had always been for him. How it would always be. "Hope's gone."

And that was it. One moment he was standing in front of Snow's residence of choice (a freaking bar for a walking cliche), and the next his back was up against the door, his feet dangling off the ground and an incredibly furious Snow Villiers glaring death up at him. Perhaps he'd been wrong. Maybe he was about to die for his troubles. "What the fuck do you mean gone?" The growl inherent in every syllable Snow ground out sent any of the nearby would be bystanders scurrying for shelter. Smart of them. It was safer to be somewhere else. Too bad he'd never been one for safe.

"Gone, Snow. Missing. Vanished into thin air. One minute he was there and the next he was gone. He's not anywhere," Noel almost babbled, his words crowding out each other in a breathless tumble. This might be his only chance to get it out before violence ensued, so he needed to make sure that Snow understood. "We've looked everywhere. I've looked everywhere. He's just... gone." And then he was on the ground again. Dropped like a hot coal.

"What the hell?" Snow muttered, almost as if to himself, before looking away. Noel picked himself up off the ground as the moments stretched into a heavy silence between them. He should probably be angry at the manhandling, it would be a normal reaction, but nothing was normal anymore. The world wasn't right. Everything had turned wrong and then the few things that had remained, that still mattered, had just been gone. It was hop- No, he wouldn't go there again. Not today.

"I don't understand," Snow said finally as he turned his attention back to Noel. "Why did you come here?"

Why? Because he had to. It was the right thing to do. Someone had to tell Snow and if it had to be anyone then it may as well be Noel. He could take whatever came of it. "You deserved to know." There wasn't really anything else he could say. The writing was on the wall, had been there for a long time. He'd face up to it, running away just wasn't his style.

"Deserved?" Snow parroted back in obvious confusion, his brows furrowing in thought as he stared at Noel. "Why would you... Oh, wait." And then it was like a light had gone off and understanding flooded in. "I see. You think I'm going to blame you for this too." Snow shook his head in exasperation as he reached forward, opened the door and pushed Noel across the threshold.

"I wouldn't blame you if you did," Noel said matter of factly as he moved further into the building. It was... a bar. Not really all that remarkable. Functional, overall, but didn't appear personalized to Snow in any shape, form or fashion. Well, he supposed a place was just a place anymore.

"Hmmph," Snow snorted as he kicked the door closed behind him and made a beeline behind the bar. "Look kid, contrary to popular belief, I am not stupid."

Noel cocked an eyebrow dubiously at that. There were many, many things Snow Villiers had done over the years that could not be explained as anything but stupid, but he let it go uncontested. Didn't really feel up to a pointless argument over nothing.

Snow smirked back at Noel as he reached down and procured a bottle of something greenish looking and two shot glasses from under the counter. Even he had to know how ridiculous that statement had sounded. "I don't blame you for much, kid," he explained further as he popped the cork off and started pouring the unknown liquor into the two glasses. "Granted, you've done some stupid shit, but so have we all." Once he finished, he set the bottle aside, pushed one of the dangerously full shots towards Noel's side of the bar and took the other in hand. "And I can't really hold that crap against you when my list of dumbass stunts is longer than God."

Noel nodded slightly and tentatively reached for the glass when it seemed Snow was waiting for him to do so before continuing. This wasn't anywhere near what he'd been expecting, but well, time could change everything, he supposed, even someone as monumentally stubborn as Snow.

Snow watched him as he brought the glass up to his lips and just as he began to take a sip of whatever the hell was in there, laid into him. "Serah wasn't your fault." Fucking bastard. Noel hacked up the burning liquid that had of course gone down the wrong pipe and seriously considered dumping the remaining contents in the glass all over that smirking jackass.

"I actually blame myself for that, to be honest," Snow supplied airily, as if the subject wasn't as deadly important as they both knew it to be. "I should've been there and I wasn't."

"Well, you kind of were in another time," Noel offered as he wiped his mouth clean and tried not to think about back then, back when everything had gone horribly, irrevocably wrong. There was nothing to be done about it. Best not to dwell.

"Hope was there," Snow pointed out. Noel winced at the name. Another memory he really didn't need to go back over right now. "I could have been there. Should have been there. But I was too caught up in other things, trusted that everything would be all right when I should have been there to help make sure it would be all right."

"I..." Noel stared down into the remainders of his drink, his expression stony now as his mind's eye turned back in spite of his wishes. Everything should have been over. They had won, even if the results hadn't been ideal. But then it had all gone to shit. And everything was... hopeless. Damnit. He could do without that word now. He could do without it forever. "I don't think it would've changed anything if you had been."

"Maybe not, but I should've been there anyway," Snow said quietly as he downed his shot in one go and poured himself another. "I don't blame you for that, or for this. Because, well, frankly speaking, there's no way Hope could be dead."

"You can't know that," Noel argued as he held his glass up to Snow in a mockery of a cheer and then downed his as well. The burn was terrific and comforting because of it. That ever welcome numbness would follow soon. It would help. For a little while.

"Sure I can," Snow countered cheerfully as he reached across the bar and poured Noel another shot. "There's no body and I know Hope. And so do you. Whatever's happened, he'll send word or show up again and have some ridiculous plan to fix everything that will most likely work. That's just how Hope is."

Noel couldn't help but chuckle at the very obvious undercurrent Snow had put into Hope's name. "Hope, huh?" What a stupid joke. Fitting though.

"I know," Snow gestured flamboyantly as he made more liquor vanish from his glass. "Stupidest name ever to give a kid. And don't you ever repeat that to anyone, I like my head where it is, thank you very much. But damned if it doesn't fit. Fuck the world and fuck us, but something will happen eventually and it'll probably be because of him."

Maybe. He couldn't quite believe it himself. And he sort of doubted that Snow really believed it either. But anything to keep them going, right? There wasn't much else after all. Just the long, endless march of eternity.

I realize that Snow may seem a bit out of character in this, however, he doesn't see Noel as a friend. I don't think he'd let someone he doesn't perceive as a friend to see how he really feels about it all.

He'd definitely screw around with Noel though. Who wouldn't?