Serah knew Noel was uneasy. From the moment they stepped through Serendipity's gate, his posture had stiffened. He remained several steps behind when Serah questioned the scantily-clad employees, who enthusiastically wiggled their tail feathers with each answer. Even the word 'casino' seemed to put Noel on edge.
"What's that?" He'd asked when Serah mentioned it.
"It's a-well, they used to have them on Cocoon," she said, frowning. "I never went to one, but you gamble in them."
"Gamble what?"
She smiled. "You gamble gil for the chance to win more. You bet on your odds to win in card games or slots."
Noel rubbed his hand against the back of his neck-another sign Serah had come to recognize as discomfort. "I think I'll... leave the gambling to you, then."
"Oh, I don't know. Gambling has more to do with luck than anything." Serah shrugged, glancing at him. Noel was looking away into the central plaza, where the giant roulette wheel was turning silently. They'd been through a lot lately; Serah had hoped the whimsical Serendipity attendants and playful atmosphere would lighten his spirits. Now she searched Noel's face and her heart fell. If anything, his guards were higher than ever.
"You know," Serah said, trying for a casual tone, "you might try your hand at some of the games in here. We could use some of your Hunter's luck."
"Oh yeah?" He looked back at her, his clear blue eyes surprised. "What makes you think I have luck?"
She laced her fingers behind her back. "You changed my life," she said quietly. "I'd call that pretty lucky."
She was rewarded with a blank look of surprise from Noel. Failed again, Serah sighed and turned away.
Noel's eyes dropped away from Serah's back and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Hey, Noel, let's go in there." Serah pointed to the building directly ahead of them, an enormous roll of slots balanced on the edge of the roof. "It seems like a good place to start, don't you think?"
Noel's smile widened when she looked back at him, and he half-bowed teasingly. "Lead on, and I will follow."
A delighted smile slipped onto her face. "Okay!" she said and led her way into the building.
The long room was dim and smoky from the cigarettes balanced delicately in several patrons' fingers. Noel jumped slightly at the jazzy music that was coming from the ceiling speakers, and then jumped again as a woman with cat ears approached them.
"Welcome!" she exclaimed, beaming. "Can I help you?"
Noel took a step back. "Er-no, I think we're fine."
"Oh, wait!" Serah flapped her hand at Noel. "We have a few casino tickets," she told the cat girl as Noel quickly understood and began to search through his pockets. "Do they work here?"
"Why yes!" The cat girl pointed to a counter on the far side of the room. "You can exchange them for coins over there!"
Noel dropped their small stack of assorted tickets into Serah's hand. "Thank you very much," Serah told the cat girl, who bobbed her head politely and went to bother someone else.
"Noel-" Serah began.
"Nah, I think I'll stay here." He held up his arms in mock surrender. "You don't need my luck up there. You know what you're doing."
Serah looked up at Noel. He'd been doing that more and more-anticipating what she was going to say. Years ago, when Lightning and Serah were younger, they had shared that ability together. Never yet had Serah felt that same closeness, that same connection with anyone. Not even Snow.
Abruptly Serah turned away. Mutely she handed the casino tickets to the woman at the counter-yet another Serendipity worker dressed like Chocolina-and received all of 582 coins in exchange.
"Would you like to see the items available for purchase?" The woman queried brightly.
Serah forced a smile onto her face, mentally pushing away the sudden frustration she'd felt when she thought of Snow. "Yes, please," she replied.
The woman removed the black covering from the counter, revealing a glass display case beneath. Serah bent to inspect it. Her eyes slid over the rows of various objects behind the glass-chocobo materials and common healing items among them-but stopped when she spotted a large violet stone. Next to it was a label that read, 'Chaos Crystal.'
"That can't be," Serah murmured, her eyes widening. She whipped around, her arms gesturing frantically. "Noel!"
He was by her side in a second. "What's wrong?" He asked, voice lowered.
"Look." She pointed to the glass where the Chaos Crystal lay. "Hope told us to look for it, and here it is!"
"He'll never believe us," Noel said, sounding bemused. His eyes followed the line of prizes. "Those two look like fragments... and that's-"
"A Wild Artefact!" They both exclaimed together.
The chocobo woman looked from Serah to Noel, her eyebrows raised. Serah turned to Noel, her hands on her hips. "Well, do you still wish you hadn't come here?" She asked, laughing.
"I never said that," he protested, an answering grin on his face. He glanced back at the glass case, and Serah watched as, all too soon, the smile vanished and Noel face became serious once more. "Okay," he said, looking back at her. "It's pretty obvious we need all these things. What's the priority?"
Serah tilted her head. "Well... Hope is waiting for us to come back with the Chaos Crystal, right? Everything else can wait."
"Alright, then. How much is the Chaos Crystal?" He asked, directing his question to the woman behind the counter.
"Ten thousand coins," the woman answered promptly.
Noel winced.
"Could we buy coins, then?" Serah asked, stepping forward.
"Certainly!" The woman replied. "One casino coin is ten gil."
Serah blanched. "Great," Noel groaned. "We'd need 100,000 gil to buy the Crystal."
The chocobo woman's smile faltered slightly. "You did just trade your tickets in for coins."
"But it's not that much," Serah put in hurriedly. "Only a fraction of what we need."
Noel turned to Serah, his arms crossed over his chest. "Well, what do you want to do, Serah?"
Serah took in his frown and the chocobo woman's concern. "This is a casino," she said slowly. "Why don't we earn it by playing the games?"
Noel's expression darkened further, but the attendant broke into a smile. "That's the spirit!" She said, flapping her wings.
"Fine," Noel said, rolling one shoulder back unhappily. "But you're the one who's going to play, not me."
"That's okay, I don't mind." Serah led the way to an empty slot machine and sat down in front of it. Deciding to start small, Serah pulled out ten coins and pushed them quickly into the narrow slot. As she reached up to pull the lever on the left, she caught sight of Noel leaning over her.
"What?" Noel blinked, straightening self-consciously. "What is it?"
Serah's lips curved up at his distress. "Are you comfortable like that?" She asked. "I mean... I've heard some people spend hours and hours doing this. Do you want me to find you a chair?"
"Hours?" Noel echoed, ignoring the questions, just like Serah knew he would. "Really?"
"It depends on how things go, I guess," she said. Serah paused again, then pressed, "so you're okay standing like that?"
He laughed a little. "This isn't the worst place we've been. You don't have to worry about me, Serah."
"R-Right." Serah quickly looked away and tugged on the lever, hopefully distracting Noel from the blush on her cheeks. What are you doing? She asked herself sternly as the three columns of bright images twirled. He's not even flirting and you get embarrassed. One after another the slots stopped and Serah let out her breath in a disappointed huff. Not even two in a row. "Sorry, Noel. I just lost one hundred gil."
"That's okay," he said quickly. "It was your first try. Go one more time."
"Well..." Serah slowly pulled out the little purse that she'd stashed the casino coins into and reluctantly fished for ten more coin. She fed them into the machine and jerked the lever once more. For a few seconds it looked like Serah might get a diagonal of cactuars, but at the last moment the final cactuar turned away, ruining it.
"See?" Serah leaned back in her chair. "Most of it is luck, but... I should have made you play."
Noel looked at her, his eyebrows raised. Serah caught his look and sighed. "I told you," she said, "I'm not lucky."
At his side, Noel's hand clenched. "Alright, get up," he told Serah. "Why don't you let me try?"
She blinked, startled. "Oh! Do you want to?"
"Sure. Put the coins in for me." They switched places and Noel settled into the leather seat. "Besides," he added, his blue eyes flickering across the slot machine's images, "why do you think you're unlucky?"
Serah bobbed one shoulder as Noel pulled the lever. "I can think of a few things," she muttered.
One moogle icon. Another moogle icon. Serah gasped as a third pink moogle slid into place. A shriek of amazement slipped out and she clapped her hands over her mouth. Noel twisted around in his seat, grinning. "Not bad, right?"
Serah removed one hand to swat at him. "That's amazing!" She breathed, staring at the slots. "That was your first time! I knew you were lucky."
"So, then, to get three in a row is the goal of this game?" Noel bent down to retrieve their winnings, but Serah saw him and moved around the chair to do it, the coin purse propped open on her knees.
"Yes, and-" The pink haired girl paled guiltily. "Noel, you should have told me I didn't explain! I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry about it, I think I've got the hang of it." He watched as Serah dropped more coins into the machine with a soft plink, plink. "Ready?" He asked and she nodded.
This time Noel got a diagonal of gold coins.
"I don't understand," he said as Serah aligned her purse to collect the winnings. "I didn't get the same three in a row, but we're still getting coins."
"Diagonal images count too," she explained, leaning across him to motion to the screen. "As long as you line the pictures up in some way, you've succeeded."
"That makes sense." He glanced over at the exchange counter and then back to Serah. "How much have we won?"
She shook her head. "There are too many to count, but I'm pretty sure we've doubled what we had before."
Noel cracked the knuckles of his left hand against the palm of his right. "Well. Should I put my 'Hunter's luck' to the test again?"
Serah nodded eagerly and quickly inserted a handful of coins into the machine. Both of them watched as Noel got one chocobo, then a cactuar and a pair of dice.
"Ah," Serah sighed, her gaze falling to the floor. "I guess it was too good to last."
"Dammit."
Serah looked up in surprise as Noel stood, his arms crossed angrily over his chest. "I'm sorry, Serah," he told her, looking away.
She zipped the purse closed. "All luck ends sometime," she told him, using the chair to pull herself to her feet.
"But-" He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry. I just... I wanted you to keep smiling."
Serah stared at his back, her heartbeat suddenly loud in her ears. What did he mean? Nothing, her mind whispered, like a fist around her heart. He's said that to Yeul, before.
"Serah." Noel turned to look at her, his eyes piercing. "You keep us moving forward. Your optimism and faith keep us going. So if something is keeping you down, then I hope you would tell me so we can face it together."
"O-Oh." Serah blinked at him. His solid tone combined with his earnest words made her feel unbalanced. "I'm sorry-"
"Don't." Noel's expression softened. "It-It isn't you. The first time I... when I saw you, I felt lucky. So please don't say you don't have luck. You do."
Her heart rose in her chest and Serah sucked in her breath. At the beginning of their journey, she never would have believed Noel, one of the most guarded men she'd ever met, could reveal a part of himself like this. She was touched.
"Noel," she whispered. It was the sweetest thing she thought she'd heard. She reached across the empty chair to touch his arm. Her grey gloved fingers brushed the black ribbon that cris-crossed his forearm, and she fingered the tight bow that hung a few inches from his elbow.
"Stop." Noel caught Serah's wrist with his other hand. Gently he moved her arm away, his eyes averted to the side. "I... there's a legend about the Hunters' Knot," he said haltingly. "I can't take it off. Not yet."
Serah slowly pulled her hand from his grasp. "I'm sorry, Noel. I didn't-I didn't know-"
"It's okay." He was watching her face. When she looked at him, he smiled a little sheepishly. "I know I didn't tell you. It's... one of those personal things. Sorry." His hand crept up to rub the back of his neck.
Serah put on a brave face. "Right. No asking about that stuff." But she wished she could. She thought they'd grown closer-hadn't he been reading her mind about things recently?-but maybe she was the only one who thought so. Maybe Noel still expected to go back to his ear, 700 AF, after the future had been changed. Then that would be it, their friendship terminated by the centuries and distance.
She looked down at her hands. In her mind, she had imagined the future to be-well, to have Noel in it. Why else had her sister, Lightning, chosen Noel to be her guide and protector? Why else had they become so comfortable in each other's company, so that whenever Noel was away (no matter for how short a time), she felt adrift?
I have feelings for him.
The recognition of this fact sent a shiver down her back. Of course she had feelings for him, Serah realized. Deep down, she'd known: she was falling in love with Noel.
Serah jumped when he called her name. "Y-Yes?" She asked.
"I've been thinking: neither of us feel up to battling the slot machine again-" Serah answered Noel's knowing look with a nod and a smile "-so why don't we just sell everything we can afford to be rid of and buy the coins we need for the Chaos Crystal?"
"That sounds like a good plan," she said. "I think I've almost had it with this casino."
"Agreed." Noel jerked his thumb at the woman at the exchange counter. "Let's see what we can get Chocolina's cousin to buy from us."
In the end, the Serendipity employee could only be persuaded to buy a few components, some equipment, and monster adornments. Serah became worried, but when all the casino coins were counted, they had just enough to buy the Crystal.
"You keep that safe, now," the attend, smiling, as she carefully handed Noel their purchase. "I know how hard you two worked to get it."
"Do you think Hope will be happy with just one?" Serah worried.
"He's gonna have to be," Noel responded as he tucked the violet stone into the leather bag on his belt. "I don't think I want to gamble here more than is necessary."
"There's also the chocobo races," the attendant put in brightly.
"No thank you," Noel and Serah said at the same time. They glanced at each other in surprise before breaking into laughter.
"Well, are we off to Academia again?" Noel asked when their giggles had subsided.
Serah smiled and bowed gracefully. "Lead on and I will follow," she said sweetly, raising an eyebrow at him.
Noel grinned back. "Yes ma'am.
Yeah, so what you're SUPPOSED to do is win enough gil to get the Chaos Crystal all on your own. I, however, did exactly what Noel and Serah did in my story and sold half my stuff to Chocolina to get enough gil.
And about the Hunters' Knot... did anyone else wonder why Noel had ribbon tied on his arm?
I have a companion story to this one coming up where Noel explains stuff. It's called "Its' Barren Perfection." Hopefully it will be up in a few days.
Thanks for reading! Reviews would make my week :D