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Noe’s eyes squinted as they fluttered open, the fluorescent hospital lights harsh and piercing. The ceiling lights hummed with electricity, and Noe felt his mouth turn to a grimace.
“I don’t like that sound.” He croaked quietly, mostly to himself.
“Of course that would be the first thing you say when you wake up. About damn time. And we can’t replace the lights, Noe, no matter how many times you complain.” A voice snorted from beside him.
Noe turned his head to look. Donned in a black doctor’s coat, a petite man rolled his eyes at him with a confident, infuriating grin.
“Uh… hello. Are you my doctor? I can’t seem to… remember anything.” Noe hesitantly sat up to properly greet the man. With a slow blink, he touched his fingertips to his forehead and met with gauze.
“You’re… you’re kidding. There’s no way. You’re messing with me.” The maybe-doctor stared at him with wide eyes. “Fuck. No, you wouldn’t even have the skill to lie about something like this-- you’re not the type,” he muttered to himself.
His eyes were an electric blue, twin orbs containing the blue moons that Noe had fallen in love with as a child. Noe would remember if he’d met someone with those eyes. (And that pretty face.) He was sure of it.
“Have we… met before?” Noe asked slowly.
“ Met before? ” The man asked him incredulously, eyebrows high and expression bordering on panic. Noe didn’t like that expression on his face. “Right. Fuck. Um. Alright.”
Noe watched as the man looked down at the clipboard in his hands for a second, something dark beginning to cloud those blue eyes as his face fell to something.
Something… familiar?
There it is again. Please don’t make that face.
“I don’t like it when you make that face.” The words fell almost involuntarily from Noe’s mouth.
The man snapped up to look at him. “You--”
“It pisses me off, for some reason.” Noe hummed, considering. “I wonder why?”
The man growled, but Noe found it more entertaining than intimidating.
“ AUGH!” He ran a hand through his (silky? It was rather nice.) black hair as he clambered out of the chair. “Wonder for yourself, dumbass!” The man flipped him off before stomping out of the room.
Noe could hear the loud footsteps down the hall. An exasperated sigh left him, and he got the nagging feeling that it was familiar.
Moments later, a black-haired woman barged into the room, a pink-haired girl following timidly behind her.
“Noe!” He was barely given a second to breathe before she trapped him in a bear hug. This time, the scent of pine and perfume made his mind click immediately.
“Domi?”
“Don’t do something that reckless ever again! I know you wanted to protect that little girl, but that truck could’ve killed you, Noe! You’re lucky it only grazed you, but it was a head injury! It could have been so much worse,” she rambled, cradling his head in her hands. “Are you in pain?”
“No, it doesn’t hurt,” Noe replied.
“Good, thank god--”
“But I’m a little confused,” Noe admitted, glancing to the side. “Um, who’s that behind you? And who’s that man that left the room before?”
“You… oh.” Domi slowly pulled back. She turned to look at the girl behind her, who muttered “so that’s why Vanitas looked so upset,” under her breath.
“Is that his name? Vanitas?”
“Yeah, that’s him.” Domi’s face turned serious. “Noe, how much do you remember?”
“I remember… you… and I remember,” Noe looked down and gestured vaguely around Domi, who nodded. “I remember Teacher, and coming to Paris, perhaps? I don’t know who that girl is, and I don’t know who Vanitas is.”
“So just some recent memories, then. I do remember the doctor saying that there might be a little bit of temporary memory loss…” Domi rubbed her chin with a gloved finger. “You really don’t remember anything about Vanitas?”
“No. Are we… close?”
“You--”
“He was treating a bunch of patients and meeting with a lot of hospitals abroad, but he took the first plane ride home when he heard you were injured,” The girl behind Domi spoke up quietly. “He was by your side the whole time. Slept in the hospital right on that chair.”
“Oh.” Noe considered the information for a moment. “I’d like to… see him again.”
“I’ll get him,” the girl said and left the room.
“Vanitas,” Noe repeated the name as he looked up at the ceiling. “Vah-ni-tas. I… like saying it.”
Domi, who’d retreated to the exit wall of the room, raised one perfect groomed eyebrow. Silently, she took out her phone.
The door creaked open as Vanitas entered.
“Vanitas?” Noe asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.” The smile on his face irked Noe for some reason. Noe narrowed his eyes at him.
“Stop making that face.”
“What face? I was born with this face.”
“Not true,” Noe countered, wrinkling his nose. “I may not be sure how I could tell, but that smile was as fake as it gets.”
“Well, excuse me for being upset--”
“You were sulking--”
“Shut up. Excuse me for being a little upset that my own husband doesn’t fucking remember me.” Vanitas huffed and crossed his arms, glaring at Domi. “And someone didn’t bother to tell me it was temporary.”
Noe stared, shocked.
“We’re… married?” Noe enunciated the words slowly. “Us? You and me? Noe and Vanitas?”
“Yes, you dolt.”
“How could that be?” Noe murmured, mostly to himself.
“I know,” Vanitas started, “I’m a total catch--”
“I find you annoying,” Noe continued, in his honest-as-ever tone. “I think I dislike you.”
Noe felt the room go silent around him for a single, shocked moment.
Then, Domi snorted so hard Noe thought she might choke. Jeanne giggled from behind her hand.
In front of him, Vanitas was the picture of outrage.
“You!!” His mouth was wide open. “You! You fucking! You really don’t change, huh?? I’m a doctor-- a doctor!! You won’t find anyone better than me in your fucking life--”
Domi coughed from behind him, and the other girl quickly elbowed her in the stomach.
“--and you’re complaining! I can’t believe this, this, this assault! I’m smart, and I have a great personality--”
Three “ehhs” echoed around the room.
“Shut up! All of you! And I’m fucking gorgeous--”
“You are,” Noe stated, matter-of-factly. He sighed. “I didn’t take myself for such a shallow person. To think I’d end up marrying someone just because they were beautiful…”
Vanitas froze, face turning a brilliant red from his cheeks to the roots of his hair. Noe watched, enthralled. Maybe I understand it a little bit…
“You. You’re. You’re so fucking. Ugh. You can’t just-- I can’t just.” Vanitas’ face was still burning, and he was trying to cover it with his hand. “I can’t, with you. Noe. You fucking dolt. Idiot. You, ugh. Fuck. You’re so. Ugh.”
Just minutes ago, Vanitas was sulking. He covered it up with a fake smile, but a single push led him to outrage, and a single compliment led him to a pure meltdown. He was so--
Noe reached out to touch his face.
Interesting.
Vanitas went even redder than he was already. The feeling of Vanitas’ cheek in his palm, warm and soft and pink, felt right. Noe smiled at the waves of joy that burst from within him.
Oh. He thought.
His eye caught on a glint of color on his finger. He angled his head to look at it. An elegant silver band made of twisted silver strands, with a single blue diamond held delicately in the middle.
He looked down and saw a matching ring on Vanitas. His was gold where Noe’s was silver, and the diamond shined a gentle lavender in the light but seemed almost crimson in the shadows.
Noe laughed, and it sounded like pure love.
“Do we fight a lot?” Noe asked. Vanitas cradled Noe’s hand on his cheek with his own, intertwining their fingers as Vanitas leaned into the touch.
“...no.” His voice had gone quieter. Vanitas pressed his lips into Noe’s wrist. Noe was smiling like an idiot, he knew it. “We don’t really fight as often as we did when we first met. We bicker though. Lots.”
“I believe it.” Noe’s eyelids were getting heavier. “I get why I married you now.”
“Was it my good looks? Charming personality? Or maybe the MD?”
Noe snorted. It was something much simpler.
“I just want to be by your side,” Noe murmured.
He fell asleep to the sound of a click on Domi’s phone followed by a snicker and an, “Oh, I’m never letting him live this down.”