A/N: Set a couple of years past the elf arc, assuming things are relatively peaceful, so everyone's around eighteen or nineteen. I'm only caught up to the very end of the elf arc, so there will be no references to the newer Heart/Spade Kingdom arc. I'm also aware of the Yuno reveal, but there are no explicit references to that. You can assume that he's chosen to keep that detail under wraps, and no one else knows about it.
I know there are probably only about three people out there that ship these two. You beautiful rare birds, this is for you.
INFLECTION POINT
I. Don't Tell Asta
Yuno had just escaped the War Merit Ceremony afterparty — or, "gathering", as they called it, in an attempt to give the event some legitimacy. It was apparently a tradition reserved for all magic knights above drinking age, and an opportunity for more senior knights to impose some light alcohol-related hazing on the younger recruits.
In typical Yuno fashion, he had slipped out after a stein of beer, not wanting to partake in his comrades' tomfoolery. Already he had felt just a slight buzz, and a very slight dulling of his mana from the alcohol consumption, and had no desire to see what more would feel like.
And so he sits in silence, taking in the night air, waiting for his buzz to dissipate before he sets course for the Golden Dawn Headquarters.
He's alone for all of five minutes before he hears someone stumble out of building, and let out a heavy sigh and disgruntled groan. Tracking the sound, he turns his head to see that it's in fact Noelle Silva, standing with her back to him, face in her hands, continuing to groan into them.
He cocks an eyebrow, observing her wavering form.
He'd seen her inside earlier, doing her usual routine with Asta — yelling at him for doing something boneheaded, blushing, pointing out that she's "royalty, you know."
She turns her head slightly, making eye contact with him and immediately jumping out of her skin.
"What?" she half snaps, half slurs, as she visibly attempts to stand straight upon noticing her onlooker.
It was strange. She was insufferably noisy and annoying, but he respected her as an ally and a powerful mage in her own right ever since he'd fought alongside her during the Royal Knights exam. However, the force to be reckoned with standing before him was nowhere near the vision of graceful and majestic power. Apparently, when it came to the youngest Silva, such effortless elegance was reserved solely for the battlefield.
"Nothing," he replies in his usual nonchalance, noting the different version of snippiness she'd just presented to him. It was a cold bark — nothing like the flustered stammering she took to around Asta.
She blinks back at him, looking at him as though he's said something incredibly irritating.
Any other person — namely, a not socially awkward person — would have followed up the curt reply with a question, or some small talk. But Yuno is not one for needless drivel, so the two remain staring at each other in silence.
It's after a few moments that she begins to shift her feet as though she's biting back the urge to say something, and he finds that he's not remotely curious about what it could be, as it likely doesn't concern him.
Another beat passes and she sighs and begrudgingly walks over to the bench he is sitting on, her arms crossed.
"Can I sit?" she asks, though it's spoken like a command.
He says nothing and moves as far away as possible to the other side of the bench - which is not far away at all, considering its relatively small size.
They continue to sit in silence, him staring up at the night sky, her doing whatever she's doing — he's unsure because he's not looking. Even so, he can feel the irritation radiating off of her, so he turns his head to see why it feels like she's about to blow a gasket, when he sees that she is face down, cradling her head in her hands.
The sight is odd enough for him to wonder what's wrong with her. Perhaps she was upset that she had to sit next to him.
"Do you want the bench to yourself?" he asks.
She doesn't bother to look at him and just shakes her head, which is still in her hands.
"No, I'm just…"
Her voice is muffled, but he can hear the slurring in her words, and it has been so very obvious from the second he saw her swaying form.
"You're drunk," he finishes for her, watching her visibly stiffen.
She says nothing — doesn't even deny it, or have a barb to throw back in his face, thus confirming his guess.
"Is there a reason you have to be drunk out here instead of in there with your squad?" he asks.
Though it sounds like he's insensitively trying to get her to leave him alone, it's a genuine question.
"I'm clearly not feeling well right now, so you could stand to be less of a dick for a moment," she snaps, the words still muffled.
It's hard to surprise Yuno, but he's momentarily taken aback at the vulgarity, having never heard royalty, much less the dainty Noelle Silva, use such language. Perhaps she was more drunk than he thought.
"Then go home," he says — again, not out of insensitivity, but what he considers to be genuine advice.
"I'm not gonna make anyone else leave the party just to take me home right now," comes her exasperated, muffled reply.
"You can't ride a broom by yourself?"
"I — th — they say you shouldn't do that drunk!" she says a little too defensively.
He continues to take in the pathetic sight of the royal next to him, sloppily drunk and hiding behind her hands and pigtails.
"Right," he says.
He isn't sure what else to say, and more than anything wants to pop back in and let Mimosa and Klaus know that he's heading back to HQ like he had originally planned. Yet, for some reason, he feels it would be awkward and probably wrong to leave the plastered royal alone in her sorry state.
"I can take you home."
She visibly tenses again and he's not sure why. He was being uncharacteristically chivalrous, after all — which is only half true, since there was nothing else on the agenda for him tonight, and he's not so sure he would've offered otherwise.
"I was going to leave now anyway," he continues.
Yuno can sense the gears turning in her head, and can already feel that her pride is getting in the way of taking up the offer, which they both knew was her best chance out of here. The only alternative was her squad coming out a couple of hours later to find the disgraced royal passed out on the bench, likely covered in her own vomit.
But, her reply takes too long for his liking, so he stands up.
"Good luck then," he says, beginning to conjure his wind transport, her pigtails swaying in response, and she immediately sits up, cheeks a harsh pink from both the pressure of her hands, and her apparent excessive alcohol consumption.
"Wait!"
Yuno calms the wind back down as she struggles to stand.
"Um. Yes," she says with a nod. Though the reply makes little sense, the meaning is understood.
Wordlessly he quickly conjures enough wind so that both rise from the ground several feet up, panic immediately spreading on her face as she struggles to maintain balance.
"There's no cause for panic. It's as stable as the ground," he reassures her.
"I wasn't panicking," she says with quiet snippiness as she crosses her arms.
"Alright then."
He then wills the wind to move them out of the street at amazing speed — which is apparently not impressive to her, as she stumbles towards him and grips his arm.
"It's too fast!" she exclaims, eyes screwed shut.
Yuno must resist the urge to roll his eyes, but slows the pace anyway, deciding to throw a bone to the drunk royal. It wouldn't be good for anyone if she wound up vomiting into the wind swirling beneath them, anyway.
As they slow down, she opens her eyes, her hand still maintaining its vice grip on his upper arm.
"Thanks," she says quietly, not looking at him. He can only imagine the hit to her ego at having to hitch a ride with him, and cling to him for balance. He admittedly finds it very amusing.
"Mm," he replies curtly. "Where's your hideout?"
She removes her hand from his arm, looking both embarrassed and deep in thought.
After a long stretch of silence, he bites back a sigh.
"You don't know, do you?" he vocalizes what she refuses to say.
He expects her to snip at him defensively, but instead she presses a hand to her forehead, and slumps down into a squat.
"This is a mess," she slurs into her palm, and even Yuno must admit, it's a sight to behold, considering the level of poise she typically conducted herself with. "I'm never drinking again."
"That might be a good idea."
"Oh shut up," she murmurs, moving her hand so that she can use one orchid eye to leer up at him.
The two share wordless eye contact, the second awkward staring contest of the night.
"I'll take you to the Silva residence then."
"No!" she exclaims, sheer horror on her face, and it's the most sober she's sounded all night.
The illusion of sobriety quickly disintegrates as she presses both hands to her face.
"I can't let my siblings see me like this," comes her muffled groan.
It is difficult to make Yuno feel anything other than bored, unimpressed, or competitive, but he finally feels a twinge of irritation begin to rise.
"Then where would you like to go?" he asks flatly.
"I…"
They've been standing in an empty field, carried on his wind for too long now, so he decides for her.
"I'll take you to the Golden Dawn Headquarters."
Again, he watches her stiffen and attempt to come up with some reason that it's a bad idea.
"You can wait in my room until Mimosa comes back, and then you can spend the night with her."
She removes her hands from her face, now hugging her knees, dazed orchid eyes meeting his cool ambers, and she gives him an almost bashful nod.
"Thanks," she peeps out.
With a curt nod, he sets course for Golden Dawn HQ.
The ride is completely silent, save for the whirring of the winds beneath them. It's a peaceful night out, and he enjoys quiet night rides under the stars like this.
After perhaps twenty minutes, he arrives at his window, and it's so quiet that he nearly forgets he has a passenger. When he remembers that he in fact does have someone with him, he turns around to find Noelle fast asleep and curled up on his wind floor. Looking at her now, it was impossible to know just how drunk she was, as she is the picture of elegance, moonlight playing on her angelic features, the light pink glow on her face serving as more of a compliment to her looks rather than a dead giveaway of her intoxicated state.
Yuno sighs as he opens the window and bends down to scoop her light, small form into his arms. As he steps into his room, she stirs a bit to get comfortable and nuzzles her head into his chest, and he waves off the action, chalking it up to her drunken, passed out state.
Upon stepping to the ground, he gingerly lays her body down on his pristinely made bed, and turns to close the window. When he turns to look at the bed, Noelle has already made herself comfortable, the side of her face buried in his pillow, clutching half of his blanket over herself, half of it still pinned under her body.
He shakes his head and takes his sleep clothes out of his closet, making his way to the common bathrooms to change.
On his return, he folds up his robe and places it on the floor, resting his head on it, sleep coming quickly — until a light snore begins to fill the space. He sits up to glance at Noelle's sleeping form — still managing to look royal and graceful despite the offending sound.
Lying back down on his robe-turned-pillow, he stares at the ceiling, thinking about what an odd situation he was in. The noisy royal water mage Asta was always with was now fast asleep in his bed.
'Best not let anyone see us in the morning.'
He resolves to wake up early and find Mimosa to pass Noelle off before anyone can see the situation and completely misconstrue it.
Sound plan in mind, he drifts off to sleep…
… only to be woken not too long after to the feeling of something prodding his cheek.
"Yuno," he hears, through the fog of his grogginess. "Yuno."
He blinks his eyes open into Noelle's violets that are far too close, and immediately pushes his head back into his robe-turned-pillow to create some distance between them as he tries to understand what exactly is happening.
"Yes, Noelle?" he whispers, trying to contain his annoyance. The sun hasn't yet risen, so he knows that he's gotten probably all of an hour of sleep thus far.
She continues to stare at him, moving her face just a little further away. But on closer observation, he notes the glazed over look in her eyes.
'Is she sleepwalking?'
"Why are you sleeping on the floor?" she queries, words slurred.
He withholds a sigh.
"Someone was sleeping in my bed," he says flatly.
She gasps, shooting him a look of judgement.
"Who? You probably shouldn't be having weird sleepovers. People could get the wrong idea."
"Yes. You're completely right," he says, well aware of the irony.
"Don't think you can get away with everything just because you're a handsome, powerful show-offy member of the Golden Dawn," she says without hesitation in a scolding tone.
He quirks an eyebrow at the hidden compliment, but brushes it off.
"Did you need something?" he asks through a yawn.
"No."
She sits comfortably into her squat, arms crossed over her knees — perhaps the second time he's seen her in that un-royal position today.
"Then go back to sleep, please," he says, hoping it's the end of the conversation.
"Where?"
"There," he says, pointing to his bed, still mussed from when she had occupied it.
"YOUR BED-?!" she exclaims and he sits up at the speed of light to clap a hand over her mouth.
"Quiet," he whispers, tone thick with warning. She blinks up at him and he slowly removes his hand.
"I can't sleep in your bed," she whispers harshly, shaking her head. "What would Asta think?"
It's an odd thing to bring up, but he obliges the question anyway.
"He'd think that he owes me for treating his drunk squadmate so nicely."
Noelle shakes her head, eyes wide.
"No, he'd get the wrong idea completely," she says, cheeks pinkening.
He quirks an eyebrow again at her panic.
"He's not smart enough to come to those kinds of conclusions," Yuno says in an attempt to reassure her.
Though, now that Asta was involved in the conversation, he finds himself curious and invested. Was she seeing Asta? To his knowledge, Asta was most definitely not in a relationship with anyone, having proposed to Sister Lily per usual, as recently as a week ago. Plus, he's certain Asta would have told him.
"Why does it matter what he thinks anyway?" Yuno asks cautiously.
Her face pinkens considerably, eyes widening, and that alone, in addition to the behavior he had observed between the two, makes her one sided affections clear.
"You like Asta."
Her mouth hangs open, brow knit, eyes wide, and she is about to retort —
— until she vomits all over his abdomen.
He stares at the wall ahead, holding his breath as she retches onto him, silently swearing never to offer to do nice things for anyone ever again.
After a quick clean up — consisting of him transporting the vomit on his shirt out of his window using his wind — he is left with a half conscious drunken Noelle, profusely apologizing through murmurs.
"I'm sorry Yuno, I'm so sorry. Please don't tell Asta please," she murmurs over and over again, as he helps her to her feet.
"We need to get you cleaned up," he says with a grimace, standing and feeling the remnants of the vomit seep through his shirt.
"Oh no, I can fix it!" she says, and before he can say or do anything, she blasts what was supposed to be a weak shot of water over the vomit stain on his shirt — though it feels more like a light punch, given her incredible amount of mana.
"Dear God I hope Mimosa's here," he mumbles to himself as he plucks his robe from the floor and unrolls it.
He throws the robe over her, tucking the hood over her head, shooting her a warning glare before she can cause any further commotion.
"You're going to stay quiet and follow me."
She blinks her glassy violets at him, nodding quietly, the robe like a large blanket draping over her petite frame.
He puts an arm around her, ensuring her entire body is covered, and leads her to the private bathroom for use only by senior squad members.
To his relief, it is empty when he enters, and Noelle is already stripping his robe off when he turns to look at her.
He walks over to the sink and turns the tap on and waves her over to him.
"Come wash your face and rinse out your mouth."
He gives her body a quick once over, noting that she fortunately hadn't tainted any of her own clothing with vomit — but he wonders if she might now, as she grasps the sink with both hands, hanging her head.
"Noelle," he says her name softly, rubbing circles on her upper back instinctively, and it's all almost sweet until he says, "If you're gonna get sick again, you should do it in the toilet so you don't make a mess."
"I'm fine," she says in a tone so somber and serious that he wonders if she's actually now sober.
"Hey," he says, placing a hand on her chin to lift her face up, and she certainly looks worse for wear. "Can you wash your face?"
"Of course I can," she says, eyes narrowed at him as he drops his hand. "I'm a royal you know."
"You mean people don't wash your face for you?" he inquires sarcastically as he hands her a bar of soap, wondering how her ability to wash her own face and her royalty are at all connected.
Apparently ignoring him, she splashes her face with water, sloppily lathering the soap in her hands before rubbing it into her face in small, calculated circles. He finds himself amused at the fact that her motor skills had returned only when it came to something likely related to a nightly beauty regimen.
As she rinses her face, he removes his shirt, and quickly rubs soap over the area on his abs that is still warm with traces of her vomit. Before he can reach out to the sink to rinse himself, Noelle presses her hand to his abs, conjuring a disk of spinning water against his skin. He is taken aback by the bold and random assistance, raising his head to look at her, her orchid eyes flicking back up to his briefly.
"It's faster this way," she says casually, halting the spell once the suds disappear.
He is both exhausted and at a loss for words, now under the impression that she has roused from her sleepwalking.
"Don't tell Asta," she then slurs as she stares at the ground blushing.
'Definitely still sleepwalking.'
Again he throws his robe over her, tucking the hood over her head once more as he pushes her along down the hallway and back to his room without anyone noticing.
He breathes a sigh of relief, pushing a light breeze to his bare abdomen to dry it, and Noelle shrugs off his robe, then attempts to remove her Black Bulls robe afterwards, of course getting tangled in it.
At this point he is resigned to his role as caretaker and steps over to help her out of it. Once the deed has been done, she looks up at him and whispers a quick thanks, opening her mouth to say something else, when he interrupts with:
"Don't tell Asta. Got it."
She jabs a finger into his bare chest and gives him a wink.
"Smart," she says, and he is just as confused as ever.
Then she walks over to his bed, kicks off her shoes, lays down like it's her own bed, and falls fast asleep before he can even suggest they go see if Mimosa had arrived.
Yuno remains standing in stunned silence, wondering if he's dreaming.
When he blinks enough and surmises that this is unfortunately reality, he folds his robe back into a makeshift pillow and lays down on the floor once more. As exhaustion takes over, he can't help but ponder on how on earth the short and raucous Asta had somehow gotten a beautiful, powerful — if insufferable and noisy — royal to fall for him.
It is a few hours later when he grunts awake, feeling slightly winded, eyes popping open at the feeling of sudden pressure sinking into his stomach. He blinks the sleep out of his eyes, looking down to see a foot pressed to his abdomen, following it up to see Noelle, sitting at the edge of his bed.
She looks at her foot, then at him, then sharply draws her foot back, eyes all but bulging out of her head.
He knows exactly what is about to take place, and he is not at all fast enough to run and stop her impending shriek of:
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
A/N: I tricked myself into shipping these two while writing this fic. Their canon dynamic is fun and cute (though scarcely highlighted), and they look really good (hot!) together. While I'm pretty sure it won't be canon, one can dream — or, the next best thing: write fanfic.
So, this fic is shaping up to be somewhere between 7 to 10 chapters. Haven't decided yet. Things will get steamy in a couple of chapters and then they stay steamy, so please do stick around if you're into that.
Thanks for reading. Please drop me a line on your way out and let me know what you think so I know I'm not writing into a void :)