The Return (Noah)

[Ravyn Rozanova]

Ravyn should have known better than to tell him when he was nearly asleep. As he began to speak and then trailed off into nothingness, Ravyn's heart squeezed painfully. He loved...? Had he even heard what she had said? She let out a shaky sigh, closing her eyes tightly and pulling herself closer to him. He was so close, but at the moment, she had never felt so far away. She tilted her head up and pressed her lips against his forehead, wishing more than anything she had told him sooner. How was she going to bring up the subject again? She might just go insane with him not knowing.

Eventually, she managed to turn off the rapid, anxious thoughts buzzing through her head, and fell into a slumber, her dreams filled with images of stars and guitars and a familiar song playing in the background....

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The sun hadn't risen yet when Ravyn's eyes opened, and she blinked wearily, feeling like she hadn't slept a minute. For a moment she forgot where she was, but the steady thump of Noah's heart reminded her, and she was instantly filled with thoughts of what had happened... Or rather, not happened. Should she mention it again? It just didn't feel right.... She just prayed another opportunity would present itself.

"Hey, sleepyhead," she murmured, reaching up and brushing hair out of her face before touching his cheek gently. Her hair had gotten messy during the night - had she been tossing? She didn't know if he was awake yet, but she didn't really want to move, both because it was warm and comfortable, and she was hesitant to leave his embrace.

[Noah Washington]

It was very early; in that break between night and day where the sky is purple and red, painted with the colours of the rising sun. Noah normally kept alarms on, but those were on a clock in his room and without it he was going to sleep in. Because one of his favourite things to do was sleep in despite practice. Still, his body clock was attuned to waking up so while he wasn't awake, he was stirring.

His phone on the nearby table blinked at the indication of a message.

"Mmrrph..." The sound fell out of his mouth as he moved slightly, because this guy was totally not keen on waking up. He could feel her touching against his face gently and it tickled his skin. Instinctively, his hand moved over and pressed against it because of the sensation.

[Ravyn Rozanova]

Ravyn glanced over as his phone blinked, and couldn't help but wonder who it was. Whatever the case, it wasn't her business. She looked back over at him and grinned sleepily as he made a noise. His hand reached up to touch her own, and she resisted the urge to just close the little distance between her lips and his. Instead, she gave him a peck on the nose, before lifting up a wing and wrapping it around both of them.

"I don't wanna get up," she murmured, even though she knew they probably should. Noah probably had stuff he wanted to go do that didn't involve her. But she had no plans, and she had no idea what she was going to do with her day. It felt weird to be back at Hammel; Noah felt like the only solid connection she had to it at the moment, and she wasn't looking forward to actually doing schoolwork again. If it hadn't been for how much she missed people (namely him), she could've stayed away a lot longer.

"Looks like you're Mr. Popular today," she told him quietly, talking about his phone blinking. She closed her eyes, still feeling really tired. "Do you need to go?" she asked in a whisper.

[Noah Washington]

"I love sleeping in." Noah replied. He didn't really want to get up either, but he really should have. He should have probably checked the time, but his mind was still not in his body. Too sleepy and all that kind of thing.

"Huh?" She asked, but then he opened his eyes and looked across the way to find his phone blinking. Noah idly reached out, missing the device a few times before finally placing his hand on it. He brought it above his head and made sure not to drop it on his face, because that was embarrassing and it happened more often than most people would have liked. "Oh, it's just Chase. I'm meant to meet up with him like... Soon." He explained.

Track in the morning. But the bed was so warm. "I thought it would have been Josh looking for me, but I doubt that guy's awake yet."

[Ravyn Rozanova]

"I do too," Ravyn sighed. "That was the awesome thing about being away - no need to get up early." But she was more awake now than she would be normally, mostly because her mind was just too full of ideas and wishes to keep her in that fuzz-half-asleep mode.

She blinked and yawned as he reached for his phone, glancing away as he read the message so as not to invade his privacy. "Oh," she murmured at his explanation, letting a small smile cross her face. "Going to work out so early in the morning? How dedicated of you." She needed to get some of that dedication. She was working on it.

Ravyn snuggled more tightly to him, holding Noah for a moment before releasing him. "Did you tell him you were staying over last night?" she asked, glancing up. "Or were they already asleep?" She had gotten back pretty late, maybe past curfew - she hadn't really checked the time. She pulled back her wing and, with great difficulty, sat up, yawning again. "Could you... Maybe come over again tonight?" she asked timidly. "It's so much nicer than being alone."

[Noah Washington]

"Yeah. Track I think." Noah explained. Running in the morning wasn't completely ideal, because people seemed to always advise about running in the evening instead. But it was a good way to wake up, if nothing else. It wasn't like he had calories to burn. "I don't really like swimming much till I wake up more, so I save it for after school." Plus Chase didn't really seem to mind the set up. That guy seemed to actually liked being up early. Weird, right?

"They were all in their rooms when I went back, so I didn't really bother checking in." Noah explained. He was normally the one who woke people up by trying to leave the room quietly and failing, anyway. Josh probably liked the break. Noah sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and running a hand over his face as he replied to the message. "Don't feel like you need to get up cause of me. You should sleep more." Noah moved with a free hand and pressed it to her shoulder, trying to cause her to hit the mattress again.


He would nap later. A nap would be awesome. "Tonight?" Noah asked, searching his head for other things he might have had to do. He couldn't really remember anything. "Sure, I guess- Oh, wait." He paused, thinking again; "Tonight's my weekly movie night with Mia. "I'd come by afterwards, but most nights I end up just crashing on her floor." Noah explained, chuckling at the thought. He really couldn't help himself... When he got tired, he was out like a light.

[Ravyn Rozanova]

"Mmm. I should go running later," Ravyn replied automatically, then frowned. No, she shouldn't. Her legs hurt just thinking about walking, let along jogging. "Scratch that. I'm just going to sit and work on homework," she added, laughing softly. She had a lot to catch up on anyway.

She moved over to allow him to get up, but didn't get out of bed herself. When he moved to push on her shoulder, she sank back into the pillows without much resistance. "Oh, fine," she said; she was still pretty tired, even if she didn't think she could go back to sleep. She would just lay there for a while, even if it was already colder now that Noah was up. "Burn some calories for me, okay?"

At his answer to her question, Ravyn's face fell slightly, but then she smiled again. "That's okay. You have fun with Mia - I think she needs some more friends to spend time with anyway." One of the things on her list to do was to go talk to the girl - they had some stuff to discuss. "I'll see you later?" She lifted her hands up to rest them behind her head, shooting him a look.

[Noah Washington]

"You don't need to burn any calories, Ray." Noah replied, looking back at her and shooting her a wink in tandem with a grin.

He didn't catch the way her smile faltered, as Noah was then leaning down to pick up his shoes. Huh, he must have left them there or something. Lucky he noticed them. "Why, did something happen?" Noah asked, curious about her statement. Had something happened? Or was Mia just feeling a little down lately? Well, that would probably mean that something did happen. Concern suddenly washed over his features.

"Ohyeah, I just can't stay away Ray." He replied, sitting back up again with his fingers hooked into the back of his shoes.

[Ravyn Rozanova]

"Not that I know of? She just... I don't know. She seems kind of lonely sometimes. I've been meaning to talk to her, I think I'll go see her tomorrow." They had talked before about Ravyn talking to Mia about Cameron, and that's what she was determined to do. She was glad that Noah had met and befriended her too, though.

She rolled her eyes at him, unable to hide a grin. Her heart fluttered a little, but she ignored it for the moment. "Good. I wouldn't want you to." With that, she gave his hand a squeeze before rolling over and pretending to try to go back to sleep. "Have fun running~" she sang out quietly.