Chapter Text
She didn't know when she first noticed.
It wasn't as if she didn't think he was attractive at first glance, far from it, but it had been such a rapid succession of events that she didn't really have the time to collect her thoughts. She wasn't okay, not quite swallowed by her own sadness, but barely above the surface, oscillating between putting up a smiley front for her students and friends, missing Snow, mourning Lightning and feeling sorry for herself, and one night she dreamt of her sister. He was there too, in Valhalla. Lightning had given this mysterious man a moogle before a meteorite came and the whole dream crumbled down. She was then awakened by a loud sound and the earth rumbling, and she didn't have the time to process the strange clothes, the vision of a desolate land in the place of New Bodhum, the monsters swarming the place or Lebreau yelling at her to get a hold of herself and being hit by a monster, but amidst all the chaos and confusion, she heard his voice. She immediately recognized him from her dream. But before they could really talk, he was handing her the bow he was carrying and telling her to fight. It felt unusual, normally everyone would try to protect her, and she hesitated to take the bow, but he gently told her that she had to fight, placing full trust in her capabilities. In that moment, all confusion and doubt dissipated from her heart, she took the bow form his hands and fought alongside him. That would be the first of many, many fights by his side, but one thing stayed the same, and that was how confident she felt with him.
She should've known better, after all, she was engaged to Snow, once he came back with Lightning they would get married. And Noel, he was a little strange when they met. He had little sense of properness, taking up personal space, being very blunt about his feelings, addressing things openly. He was never rude though, in fact he could empathize really well with others and all the concerns he raised out loud were fair and important, even if they were uncomfortable topics for others. One of those moments was when she was sharing the promise Snow made to her and he had asked her why she'd stayed behind while Snow was looking for her sister. This was a touchy subject for her and he must have sensed it halfway through the conversation because he immediately apologized for pressuring her. He was kind like that, always ready to recognize when he was in the wrong and apologize for it. Snow was a bit more stubborn, but he was like that too, and she found herself drawing similarities between the two of them from that moment forward.
As they traveled together, they got closer. Serah learned that Noel's grandmother was his only family, his mother died in childbirth and his father never returned after going hunting. She was the oldest person in his village, and therefore she became a teacher, the last of his time, trying to pass all her knowledge to the young villagers before it was lost with her death. So naturally, Noel felt very strongly about history preservation for its importance in the preservation of humanity, languages and traditions, as a way to learn lessons from the past and avoid repeating the same mistakes, but mostly, Serah sensed, as a way to deal with his grief, to preserve his grandmother's memory and legacy. Despite such a hard life, Noel seemed like a very balanced person, and there were times when he made her realize just how out of touch their sheltered lives on Cocoon had been and how they worried about meaningless things and made up rules. Being the last of humanity meant that he could see the value in things that everyone took for granted, and not just food or community, sometimes something as simple as the assumption that wherever you went, you were bound to find humans or traces of civilization. She couldn't even imagine how hard it was for him to have lived so long without any of that, and seeing everything that he was missing out on as they traveled, and it was quite remarkable that in spite of it all, he was still so kind and empathetic, easily blending in wherever they went as if he'd been there before. She figured that she still had a lot to learn, and maybe Noel could teach her many things, things his grandmother taught him, things about the world, and even things about herself. He inspired her to be better.
She didn't know when she first noticed, but suddenly it hit her. She was in love with Noel.
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He didn't know when he first noticed.
It wasn't as if he wasn't mesmerized by her beauty when he first saw her, but he had a mission. "Bring my sister to me", Lightning had asked. Lightning was very beautiful too, he had credited this first impression of her to him meeting a whole new person after he had been isolated for so long, but apparently it ran in the family. Nonetheless he was on a mission, and so when he landed in New Bodhum and saw the monster invasion, he didn't really have the time to properly introduce himself. You want her? Then you're gonna have to go through me! Looking back now, it sounded so silly, but in the heat of battle his priority was protecting her. Lightning's sister. Serah. He knew right away it was her, not only for her beauty, not even for her very distinct pink hair, he just knew. And he didn't really know what to expect when they first met, but she wasn't as shocked as one would normally be given the circumstances. No, it was almost like she knew he would be there. Later she would reveal that she had a dream where she saw Valhalla, and the events he lived there briefly with Lightning, a description so vivid that for a second he wondered if she had been there too. You can find Serah, and together you can change the future, Lightning had said to him, as if she could read his soul, and so he made it his mission to find this Serah wherever she might be, no matter how long it took. Never could he have guessed that he would fall right in front of her. Or for her.
He should've known better, after all, he knew right away that she was unavailable. The day after he landed on New Bodhum, everyone was talking about this Snow guy and Noel had to ask about him, but he didn't expect her to get carried away. A simple "he's my boyfriend" would have sufficed, but she gave him the whole picture. Snow was kind and gentle and big and strong and everything a girl could dream of. Surely he had to leave many girls completely starstruck, not just Serah, and Noel wondered how did they even end up together. But truth to be told, in a room full of pretty girls, Serah would still stand out, so of course a cool, handsome guy like Snow would pick the nicest, prettiest girl around to be his girlfriend. That made sense. It was a perfect match. and these were strangers, really, he didn't care. But back then he had felt oddly bitter about it. Again, he attributed it to his isolation, and for a long time that was his go-to excuse for every time he had felt odd.
As they traveled together, they got closer. Serah was a teacher like his grandmother, and she was very interested in history and archaeology. She explained that her motivation to become a teacher stemmed from the events that she had lived ever since becoming a l'Cie. She'd realized that the common folk were mere pawns in the hands of the government, easily disposable if they saw it fit. and they did try to get rid of her and her whole hometown instead of taking a more diplomatic approach to find non-violent solutions, all for the sake of keeping their power and control over the population. and the worst part of it all was that they were fed lies and government propaganda about the evil savages of Pulse when its civilization had died out already, all for the sake of keeping the narrative going and controlling the population through fear. He didn't pry too much into it, but he could only imagine how traumatizing it must have been for everyone to see their world turn upside down, to see everything they ever believed in turning out to be a lie, and he admired her greatly for smiling through the conversation and focusing on the good that truthful teaching would do to the younger generation. She was strong, even after going through such an awful experience, she could still take a positive lesson from it and move forward. as for him, although he tried to understand that people didn't know any better, he found it hard not to resent everyone who let the world come to ruin. He figured that he still had a lot to learn, and maybe Serah could teach him many things, things his grandmother could not, things about the history of humanity, things about the world, but also things about himself. She inspired him to be better.
He didn't know when he first noticed, but suddenly it hit him. He was in love with Serah.