Chapter Text
1
Noct woke up before Luna did, and he was careful as he slid out of bed. Normally, he’d try to stay in bed as long as he could before getting gup, but when he caught a glimpse of Luna, still asleep so peacefully next to him, he felt his heart beat so loudly that he was fairly sure if he stayed in bed, he would wake her up.
And she looked so peaceful while she slept.
As he padded down to the kitchen, he could see through the large windows in the foyer that the sun was still in the process of rising. When he approached the kitchen itself, he was greeted by the smell of coffee brewing and the sound of oil in a pan before he even entered.
Of course it was Ignis at the stove, cracking an egg into the skillet. He looked up as Noct entered. “Good morning, Noctis. There’s coffee in the press.”
Noct looked where he was gesturing toward a French press that sat on the counter nearby to the stove. He crossed to the cabinet to retrieve a mug before stopping at the canister of sugar next to the matching flour jar beside the refrigerator.
“I still can’t believe you use so much sugar,” said Ignis.
“The coffee is just the carrier for the sugar,” said Noct as he scooped more than a few scoops of sugar into the mug. “As long as it dissolves.” Then he crossed to pour himself some coffee, careful to leave some room for the cream.
“I want to be clear that I’m making this breakfast for Regis and not for you,” said Ignis. “To make up for the wreck of his birthday. Or try to.” He paused, and used the spatula to poke at the eggs in front of him. “But I have some things out if you want to put together something for yourself, or for Lunafreya.”
“You don’t want to cook for me, Iggy?”
“I’ll be happy to when you have a heart attack.”
Noct smiled despite himself and paused with his hand on the handle of the fridge. It would be a nice gesture to make something up for Luna, given what she’d done for him. Given what she’d been through yesterday, at least. “Yeah,” he said as he poured some milk into his coffee until its brown had softened to a light tan. He recapped the milk and shut the fridge before bringing the cup to his lips to taste it.
As he did, he was reminded of the coffee he’d had at the coffee shop at school, when he and Luna had sat on the front patio together and he had proposed his plan over coffee. When she’d shown up and listened and gone along with his foolishness even though she probably had other things going on, and she’d looked radiant in the sun, the way she gently padded at her lips with a napkin after she took a sip of coffee, the way she silently giggled when he’d said something she thought was funny…
And somehow in this moment, he realized why it was he’d had a hard time sleeping when she was near but now had a hard time sleeping without her. There was a reason his heart beat fast when he saw her so perfectly asleep. There was a reason why despite how chaotic it was, now that his dad was going to be okay, he didn’t want this weekend to end.
“Ignis?”
Ignis had turned off the burner, having transferred the eggs from the skillet to a plate, and he turned to Noct. “Yes?”
“How do I tell Luna I like her?”
“Hm,” he said, his grin turning up slightly. “Begin by taking her on a real date.”
He picked up the plate and a fork he’d placed next to it, crossed to the try that already had a napkin and cup of coffee, and brought the whole breakfast presentation out of the room.
It was only after he was gone and mounting the stairs that Noct realized the implications of what Ignis had just said. It was like him to know more than he let on.
He listened to Ignis reach the top of the stairs and travel the short distance down the hallway to his father’s room with the tray of food.
Then, after a moment, he left his barely-coffee behind to find what he’d need.
2
"Where are we going, Noctis?" asked Luna, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. The wide-brimmed hat she wore kept most of it out of her eyes, but the last little gust of wind had knocked a few strands loose.
"Not too far," said Noct, "but I figure that we've spent enough time cooped up in that house, or at the hospital—it'd be nice to get out and spend time out together, just the two of us." He could feel the weight of the picnic basket on his arm, and he wondered if she'd object as he said that. It wasn't that he thought she wouldn't want to be with him alone, but there was the idea that their facade, the story they were telling where they were supposedly dating, that only existed when they were around others. And when they were stuck together and not around others, what would she feel about him?
There was when they were in bed, but that'd been mostly cordial, trying to avoid the awkward connotations or connections that might be made about the sleeping setup. And now, during the day, and what he hopes would come across as romantic...
"Right up around here," he said. They were on the outskirts of his father's property—the long, sloping lawn broke away into a small copse of woods at one end of the property, and when they were younger, before the accident, Noct could remember playing in here with Luna. They'd been much smaller then, and he knew that all of their parents—because they'd all been alive then—would call them back when they couldn't see them beyond the reaches of those branches. But just beyond that first couple of trees was a small clearing that Noct knew about, where a small brook babbled and the trees didn't overhand so much as to obscure the sunlight.
It was there that they broke through now, and he gestured as if showing off. She giggled. "You've done a magnificent job creating this place," she said, pausing to kneel and smell some of the flowers that grew up around the edge of the clearing.
"Wish I could take more of the credit," said Noct. He placed the picnic basket down carefully and unfolded the checkered blanket he'd folded over the top of it. It took him a moment to spread it out over the tall grass, pushing it down where it tried to spring back upward. The day was sunny, but it was one of the last warm days they'd probably have for a while, as the fall was more and more taking over the season. The few changed leaves lit up like little splashes of color among the green of the word around them.
"You've set up quite the spread," said Luna. Noct turned from his work with the blanket to see her uncovering the basket, poking around at what was inside. "Did you make all of this?" She pulled up the pie that he had placed precipitously atop the rest of the supplies in the basket, careful so that it would not shift and get ruined with the small hike out here.
"I wish I could take credit for that, as well," he said, "but almost all of this is left over from the other day. A lot of the food didn’t get eaten at the party..."
Luna just nodded and handed over the pie, pulling out the next couple of bits of food. Some apples, grapes, a bottle of wine—at which she raised her eyebrows before handing it over—and some cheese, a baguette...
"Did you leave anything in the kitchen?"
"Ah, Ignis'll make something," said Noct, "he stress-cooks anyway."
She giggled at this, her hand covering her mouth politely as she sat down carefully near the edge of the blanket. Noct began to arrange the food in a way that he figured they would be able to actually eat it. A couple of plates and napkins as well as some plastic utensils and plastic cups from the bottom of the basket allowed him to round out the presentation.
"This is lovely, Noctis," she said, and she reached across the food to place a hand on his knee. He could feel something like a jolt run through him at the contact, which sort of annoyed him. Why would he feel that sort of a nerve when he had touched her how many times in the past? But he supposed now that they were on a date, whether he'd told her it was one yet or not, that changed things.
He froze. It sort of changed everything.
But he couldn’t freeze for long, because he knew that she was watching him, and she didn't need to think he was any more of a weirdo than she already knew him to be. He grabbed ahold of the bottle of wine and took the corkscrew from the bottom of the basket and began to get to work on it. He started with the foil, which was more difficult than he thought it should be, but once he got it off, he found that he had to try more than a few times to try to get the cork actually on the corkscrew. Finally, Luna held out a hand. "Let me."
He handed it over, and she was able to thread the cork onto the corkscrew as if it was nothing. As if he hadn’t mangled the top of the cork with his first few attempts at it. A couple of turns, a quick pull, and the cork was out, and she was able to pour the wine into the plastic cups that Noct had prepared. He realized the reason why it was so much easier for her was that her hands were not shaking the whole time she was doing it. He really needed to get a hold of himself if this was going to go well at all.
"Cheers," she said once she'd recorked the wine so it wouldn't spill and held her cup up for him to meet with his own. He clinked his cup to hers, and they both took a sip.
Then, they both sort of just looked at one another.
Noct realized that by asking her on a real date like that, by taking the initiative that he definitely should, if he wanted to make this happen, it meant that not only were they one another's only source of entertainment, but that he was going to have to maintain an active part of the conversation the whole time.
"So..." he said, taking another sip of the wine. He didn't really know what he should say next, so instead, he put the cup down in a spot where he could find a flatter space on the blanket—where he figured at least it wouldn't knock over immediately, and plucked out some of the grapes from the bunch, handing it over to Luna, who graciously accepted them. "This has been a very long weekend."
"That is something of an understatement," she said, wiping at the edge of her mouth briefly before eating one of the grapes herself. She tilted her head slightly as she chewed. I didn’t think it was what anyone expected."
He nodded, and almost let out a nervous laugh himself. His father's heart attack, her brother's outburst, then the whole charade they'd been putting on—it was all a little more than he'd expected, just a quiet weekend at home for this party.
"Have you given any thought to what you might like to do after school?" he asked. He surprised himself, a little, with the question, but he realized that most of what he wanted to talk about, at least for now, was the future, as weird as that might be. He never really thought much about that before; he found himself in the present and reflecting on the past.
"I have a couple of thoughts," she said. "I know that I’m interested in fashion, but I don't know if that's something that I can pursue realistically—perhaps more of a hobby." She considered a moment, popping another grape into her mouth. "But maybe something in law—I've been looking at law school, actually. Shaping public policy. Not as a politician, but as someone who assists lawmakers in their speeches and strategies." She paused. "I know it sounds like I'm out to take over the world, it sounds that way to me," she grinned, "but I want to be a part of making the world a better place, even if that doesn’t mean taking the spotlight."
"Yeah," said Noct. He could understand that—not wanting to be in the spotlight. But he admired that she focused on making the world a better place. It was—it was something noble, something more than just a job.
"That's amazing," he said. He wasn't sure what else he was supposed to say, but he quickly added, "I would trust you with my public policy any day."
"Are you looking to go into politics, Noct?"
"Oh God, never in my life," he said.
They both laughed at that, and after a moment, they unwrapped some of the cheese and placed it across one the of the plates with some crackers. Noct took a bite, and it was Luna's turn to take over the conversation.
"And what do you think you're going to do after graduation?" she asked. "Will you be going into the family business?"
"I mean, it sounds like nepotism when you say it like that," said Noct, "But yeah, I think I'm going to do some work with Cutting Edge. Dad really wants to have me around, and..." he knew that there was a lot more to his dad wanting him around after this weekend, even with his insistence that he was fine now that his arteries were basically reconstructed. "I like the copyediting; I even like the writing sometimes." He shrugged. "I guess it'll be pretty good."
"You sound enthused."
"I really do think it’ll be good, I just, you know..." He trailed off. "I haven't really thought about the future that much. I know that my dad has, and I know that you have—I mean, you're thinking of law school and all that, it's incredible."
"I promise you that I'm not as well put-together as you seem to think," said Luna.
"What do you mean?" asked Noct. He was surprised that he’d say this; she'd been the rock of their fake relationship the whole time they'd been here.
"Well, for one," she said, "I accepted the last-minute invitation to be someone's fake girlfriend for a weekend, and I don't think that's really the mark of someone who has a great handle on her decisions for the future."
"Yeah," said Noct—and he could feel a sinking in his chest. What was it that she really thought about this arrangement, then? Because she made it sound like a bad decision. And maybe... maybe it was.
"I was thinking about something you said the other day, when you were talking about your brother..."
Luna's smile left her face. "I am sorry again for him, I promise that he means the best and is just an idiot—"
"No, no, it's not that, it's just..." He took a deep breath. He knew that this was something of a leap of faith. He looked past Luna’s bright eyes to the gentle swaying of the light blue wildflowers that whispered behind her. They reminded him of the doodles she made in that notebook, the ones that she'd doodled all those years ago, when she was by his side. "You said something about how he was going to learn to like me. I’d grow on him. Something like that."
"Oh, I mean that he just needs time to adjust to a person. He's stuck in what he thinks happened, and—"
"No, it's not that, I get that," he said. "No, I just mean that you said that and it meant that you thought we were going to be together long enough for him to get used to me. That he was going to have the time to get used to the idea of me being around."
"Oh, I just—" It was Luna's turn to be flustered, and Noct could have sworn that he saw a touch of red come to her cheeks as she looked for the next words to say. "I just mean that he's stubborn, and that he..."
"I know what you mean, but I think that... well, I sort of want him to be able to get used to me."
"What are you saying?"
"I mean, I don't want to be friends with Ravus." he held up his hands. "It's nothing against you, but your brother is kind of an asshole."
"Noted."
"But I mean, we've been faking it, and I just wanted to sort of... try it out for real."
"Try it out for real?"
"Dating."
"Noctis, I—"
"And before you respond," he said, holding up his hands and turning toward the picnic basket one more time. He pulled out the thing that he had carefully folded and placed at the bottom of the basket. Actually, it had been the first thing that he had packed when he was getting this whole thing set up. "I want you to know that I wanted this to be a real date. And that I was making a real effort for it."
He could feel his palms sweating, but he tried to ignore that as he handed the cloth napkin, the one that he'd stolen from his dad's immaculately and perennially -set dining room table, to Luna. She took it graciously.
"A date with real cloth napkins," she said. She raised one eyebrow, and Noct thought that he could see the corner of her mouth raise just a bit, as well. "You can afford this?"
"I can, for you," he said. He felt how cheesy it was even as he said it, but at the same time he figured that he didn't even regret it. It was worth it being cheesy for her.
"I..." She held the napkin in her hand as if she wasn't sure what to do with it, and for a moment Noct worried that she wasn't going to find this as endearing as he hoped it would look to her. He folded another napkin in his lap, nervously holding it there like it was some sort of lucky token, some symbol that he'd done the thing that she officially designated as a "date."
"Of course," she said. "I was wondering how long it was going to take you to ask."
"What?"
"I honestly thought that I was going to have to ask you myself, but I didn't want to overstay my welcome. You had the home field advantage, after all."
"What do you mean, you've—"
"Noctis, do you think that I would have accepted this whole hare-brained scheme if I didn't at least like you a little?"
“I said I’d owe you one,” said Noct.
“And what you owe me is nothing but to hear you actually express your feelings instead of blushing every time we make eye contact.”
“I don’t—” he began, but he could feel the redness rising ever brighter in his cheeks.
She put her hand on his, and he was suddenly even more aware of the space between them—and in particular, how small that space was. “Noctis, I’ve…” She trailed off, but she was close enough now that he could almost feel her soft breath against his own face.
“You’ve always been there,” said Noct. And he realized he meant this more than just over the course of this weekend. It had been her, it had always been her, there for him when he had lost his mother, when he had been bedridden afterward, when he needed someone to talk to, even if it was just to send pictures of her dogs. It was her, and she was there. And this weekend showed more than ever before that he wanted her there. And he wanted to be there for her, too.
Noct closed the gap between them, tilting his head just slightly and gently cupping her cheek as their lips met in a soft kiss. A faint swell in the wind around them, which rustled up the smell of the late-summer wildflowers that persisted with their blooms. She kissed him back a little more greedily, her hand covering his on her cheek as she pushed deeper into the kiss.
When they broke off, Noct could feel himself still leaning in a little bit, as if he wanted her kiss to linger on his lips a little bit longer than would really even feel romantic anymore. He opened his eyes and felt like he might have been blinded by the brightness of her demure smile.
“This is…”
“Yeah.”
The space between them was comfortable. That was the biggest difference that Noct noticed, and for the first time, it all made sense. When they’d been together up until now, there had been that hint of awkwardness, that twinge of uneasiness and worry that came along with everything they did together. This was their escape from it, just admitting what at least Noct wasn’t able to even admit to himself.
“Luna, I think I like you. Like, I really like you.”
“You just kissed me, I’d hope you’d like me,” said Luna. But even this chide was just a tease. She leaned in and kissed him at the corner of his mouth. “I like you, too.”
After that, neither of them really said anything for a while. Neither of them needed to. Noct poured them a bit more wine at some point before recorking it, and they chatted about nothing in the warm fall afternoon. After a time, Noct laid his head in Luna’s lap at her suggestion and he looked up to her as she talked about a project she had been working on at school. And listening to her talk—just hearing her discuss her passions about how she wanted to change the world—and seeing the way the sunlight matched her hair and her dazzling countenance, it was almost too much for Noct to bear. If he wasn’t sure he’d slept well the night the night before, he would have sworn he had fallen asleep and was in the middle of a very pleasant dream.
Luna’s wide-brimmed hat was a halo that framed her face as she looked down to him. He smiled back at her, and he could have lived in that moment with her forever.
3
They walked back to the house hand in hand, and Noct realized that this wasn't going to be as big a deal to anyone else as it was to him, as it was to Luna. For them, this was the first time that they were together, as an item that could be considered to be "together." For everyone else, they'd been together for a while already. Except for Ignis, but Ignis knew more than everyone else anyway.
As they approached, Noct could see that his father was sitting in one of the cloth-backed chairs that was a part of the patio furniture set. He was wearing some sunglasses that were maybe a little bit too big for his face, and for a moment Noct thought he looked sort of like a little kid who had put on his father's glasses to make himself look cool. Maybe like he'd done at some point or another, at some point in the past. As they approached, Regis waved to them, calling them over. Noct looked to Luna as if to get confirmation that they would acquiesce, but she was already adjusting their course to go toward Regis.
"Hey, Dad," said Noct.
"Good afternoon, Noct, Luna," said his dad, nodding to each of them. There was a copy of last month's Cutting Edge on the table beside him. Noct knew that his dad was very hands on with his magazine, and he was more than used to seeing his dad rereading the most recent issue to make sure that everything in it continued to be up to snuff. He wondered how much input he had put into this most recent issue, since there was the whole complication of the excitement of the weekend. He figured that some of his higher-ups at the magazine must have taken over.
And maybe that was part of why he was trying to get Noct more comfortable in the editing positions he'd let him begin to dabble in over the summer.
He shook his head away from that. His dad seemed calm and serene out here, maybe for the first time since his heart attack and surgery.
"It's a nice day to be sitting outside," said Regis. He gestured to the seats near him. "You are welcome to join me, if you both would like."
"Oh, we were just putting these away," said Noct, holding up the picnic basket.
"I'll take it," said Luna, pulling the basket from his opposite arm and breaking off toward the kitchen before he could really make a move to stop her. "You got it all set up, the least I can do is clean up after." there was something implicit in the way she did it. She was telling him to talk to his father. That was fair, though he did already miss her hand in his as she departed toward the indoors through the French doors in the rear of the house that opened to the patio.
Noct took the seat as he watched her go. "You really like her, don't you?" his father asked, shifting in his own seat. Noct raised his eyebrows.
"I, uh—yeah, I do," he said.
Regis nodded. "I know it. The way you look at her—I'm not completely unfamiliar with it myself. I used to look at your mother that way..." he trailed off, and Noct could tell that his eyes were looking past him into the past, when his mother had joined him out on the patio.
"Yeah," said Noct, not sure what else to say. He wasn't used to talking to his dad about much more than just what he was doing in his day-to-day; talking about feelings was a big new step for them.
"I suppose I should have always known it would have been Lunafreya, though," he said. Noct looked to his father. "You shouldn’t be surprised," said Regis, "she's been there for you your whole life. A good friend. And so kind, caring, and attentive—you couldn't ask for a sweeter girl."
"Yeah, I know it," said Noct. His dad was right. he knew he was right. He sighed. "I didn't know what to expect, bringing her home this weekend."
"You know she's always welcome here."
"I guess that's why I asked her," he said, realizing that he meant this in a different way than his father would understand it.
4
Noct turned to his father, and Luna hesitated at his side. “Happy birthday, Dad,” he said. “And… thanks.”
“Of course,” said Regis. “Thank you.” He paused, then shifted himself on his cane to face Luna— “And thank you for keeping an eye on my son.”
“It is honestly my pleasure,” she said, giving him a coy sideways glance as she spoke.
And shortly after that, they were in the car, Ignis driving them down to the bus station. He didn’t say much, but Noct could tell by his smile that he was still pretty proud of himself for having figured out their whole pantomime. Noct couldn’t hold it against him.
Luna was texting in the backseat. “Ignore me,” she said. “It’s just my brother.”
“Tell him to call before he shows up next time.”
Luna screwed up her face in mock-reproach. “I’ll try to remind him.” She cracked into a smile, and returned to her screen.
Ignis waited with them until the bus showed up, and he gave each of them a tight hug before letting them go. As he held Noct, he said, “Be a little smarter next time, Noctis—she’s good for you.”
“Will do, Specs. Take care.”
He patted him on the shoulder and they disembarked, Ignis disappearing in Regis’s car before their bus left the terminal. And the two of them were left alone, but Noct felt that this wasn’t a bad thing.
The bus ride wasn’t too long, or at least Noct didn’t feel like it was. But the length, whether it seemed shorter than the ride in the opposite direction didn’t matter, because he was there with Luna.
Neither of them needed to say much of anything, though they did quietly chat from time to time on the ride, about Ignis or Luna’s brother or the things they both had going on at school. Ignis was working hard at the magazine. Ravus was going to be made a junior partner by the end of the year, if he just didn’t snap at any of the other lawyers in the firm in the meantime. Luna had projects coming up she didn’t want to think about yet, and Noct could only assume this was the same for him. But what had changed was their proximity. While before, they’d amicably if not awkwardly shared the bus seat, Luna now actively allowed herself to rest on Noct’s shoulder—something that he could only assume was on purpose.
And when she fell asleep to the gentle trundle of the bus’s motion, he let her sleep, his arm draped gently around her back. Her breath was soft against his chest, and he found himself relaxing even more, just knowing that she was comfortable enough with him to doze off like this.
The sky was just beginning to darken, and Noct looked past Luna to the treetops that blurred past through the window.
It was over this tree line that he caught sight of the moon, hanging low in the sky as it gradually shaded itself purple, darkening around the moon’s light.
As he felt the soft presence of Luna by his side, the lone first star began to twinkle in the sky.