Don't Let Me Fall - tags Noah

[Noah Washington]

Noah dragged himself across the ice to meet her halfway, smiling when he felt the small kiss against his forehead. He looked at the ice, remembering that it wasn't too long ago that he was freely swimming around in the water instead of wandering around on top of it; or falling on it, for that matter. "Hey, I did that on purpose y'know," He lied, "I didn't want you to feel too bad about falling." A bruised ego? He just laughed it off.

"Fiiiine. But just be careful." He said, finding himself sounding more concerned than he expected. Hey, it wasn't nice to see her fall like that. He awkwardly (but successfully) got himself onto his feet again and offered both arms to help her up. "Ever since I can remember. My uhh, dad used to take me when he had the time."

[Valerie Danner]

"Oh so that was what it was. A pity fall." Valerie's face fell as she nodded with a sniffle. "It's cool. I'm...fine." She couldn't contain her laughter, though so as she let out a little giggle, a bark of laughter followed soon after as she shook her head. "Well thanks. Even if it was a pity fall."

Valerie couldn't help the smile at hearing the difference in Noah's tone when he warned her to be careful. Once she was up, she held on to Noah's hand tight. She looked up when Noah's voice changed. His words held a little...sorrow [?] in them. Valerie stopped moving and pulled Noah close. "You okay?"

[Noah Washington]

Noah watched her as she changed, from pretending to be sad to laughing and shaking her head. At least she was playing along with him through this. He pressed his hands to her face and leaned over to kiss her lightly. "You're welcome." He replied with a smile.

He squeezed her hand once, halting when she did and turning around to look at her. It wasn't exactly the kind of conversation he had thought about having when he was in the middle of a frozen lake, but what could he do? "Yeah, I'm okay." He replied with a short nod, "It's just. My dad's... Yeah." Noah brushed the hair away from his eyes with a quick turn of his head. He reached over and fiddled with the line of her beanie, ensuring it was still secured to her head.

"He's not around anymore. He died a little over a year ago." He replied finally, trying not to make it sound like a big deal despite the look on his face.

[Valerie Danner]

Valerie closed her eyes with a smile at his kiss. It was funny that prior to this relationship, she had never really been good with affectionate guys. But Noah made it feel so...natural. Like she was meant to be treated this way. By him.

The quick changes in Noah's expression almost broke her heart and once Noah actually admitted to why, Valerie's face fell. "I'm sorry." She stroked his cheek and tried not to look like a weirdo about it.

"Do you want to talk about it though? We can ditch the skates." She asked. He didn't have to say yes but she really didn't know what else to say after that. She didn't want to be insensitive and pretend like he didn't tell her a really big part of his past. But she didn't want to push him to tell her about it either.

"Or we could just continue watching me stumble all over the ice. Whatever you want,"

[Noah Washington]

"It's okay." Noah replied quietly. He wasn't sure what else he was able to say on the matter, but he at least knew for the most part that it was okay. There was no changing what had already happened.

His mouth cracked into a smile when she smoke and a small pitch of laughter came out. "As entertaining as watching you attempt to skate is, if you want to talk about it... It'd be easier not to be." He replied. With as much reassurance as he could, he did his best to guide her back to the stability of the grass. "Thanks for skating with me though. I know you mightn't enjoy it or whatever, but it was still fun." He said, looking over at her as he sat down and started de-lacing his skates.

"It's not exactly an easy thing to talk about, y'know?" Noah began again, though he was smiling about the fact. Something about smiling just made it easier. "The only other person here I've told is Ravyn. And we've been friends for over a year, but I only told her pretty recently. And even then, I just sort of blurted it out by accident..."

[Valerie Danner]

She laughed at Noah's 'sweet' attempt to stop them from making a fool of herself. She took it any way she can and followed him to the bank. Glad to be on land, Valerie sighed with relief and smiled at Noah's thanks. "I figured, why not get the embarrassment out of the way on the first official date as a couple." She grinned and bumped into his shoulder in a teasing manner.

Keeping quiet and unlacing her own skates, she turned to Noah and gave him an encouraging nod. And as he continued, even bringing up Ravyn, Valerie tried to listen through until the end. It was probably the words he chose, perfectly crafted, as though he was a mind reader, but it seemed to reach out to her paranoia and try to kill it.

It took him a long time to trust someone with this information but he was telling her this after a short period of time together. She knew it then that she was a goner.

Moving closer, like they weren't already before, Valerie wrapped one arm around Noah's shoulder and brought his head down to her so she could place a long kiss on his forehead. "I appreciate that." She whispered against his skin, closing her eyes, practically squeezing them before tears could come out. "I appreciate that you can share that with me." She breathed out before pulling away.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that...especially at your age. And Josh...how old was he when it happened?" Valerie asked softly, wondering if it was okay for her to continue her line of question.

[Noah Washington]

Noah leaned across when she drew him closer, smiling inwardly at the feeling of her lips against his forehead. He hadn't known that such a thing would be so important to another person; when he told Ravyn she was speechless from what he could recall, and he quickly moved to turn the conversation back to her. He wouldn't even let his friend hug him for comfort.

"I'm just glad I was old enough to understand it." Noah replied. And in truth he was. He was glad it wasn't something that needed to be explained to him. "He was only ten. He didn't really get it. Or at least, he didn't get why it happened. But he knew dad wasn't coming home again." Another reason why he was glad he was old enough to understand it. So he could be the one doing the explaining.

He shrugged his shoulders, tugging the skates off his feet one at a time. "That's why I sorta live with my grandmother. She looks after Josh a lot." He fell back down onto the snowy grass, looking up at the sky and pressing his lips together for a second or so. "Mom's not okay. She wasn't, I mean. And she isn't. Hasn't been since."

[Valerie Danner]

Valerie nodded, smiling a little sadly at what she was being told. She couldn't imagine losing her parents. She had almost lost Spencer but she thanked God every day nothing happened to her. And she was all the better for it.

She pulled her legs up to the grass, tucking it under her before leaning her head on his shoulder, looping her arm around his. "I'm sorry you're dealing with all this." She consoled him.

For a moment, she kept quiet before she took a deep breath and nuzzled his arm. "But you're okay...aren't you?" She asked, her voice a little muffled due to the position she was in. She looked up, hooking her chin on his forearm and smiling. "You're more than okay." She reached one hand up and stroked his cheek with the back of that hand.

"Okay...maybe we should go and do something that is less embarrassing for me." She chuckled. "I don't know what exactly that is, but we should." She nodded, patting his arm lightly.

[Noah Washington]

His eyes searched for the presence of stars; the small significant lights offering a means for comfort as they always did when this subject came up. There was still more to it. The more she talked, the more he steadily began to realise that this wasn't the time to offload it all. "Is anyone ever okay with this?" He asked, pushing out a breathy laugh to cover up any ill feelings.

"Less embarrassing?" Noah asked, looking over at her again, "I already got you off the ice. Can't get much worse than that, can it?" He nudged her lightly with his shoulder.

[Valerie Danner]

"You're better at maintaining than half the people I know, I guess." Valerie responded softly. Just like how she was with Spencer though, she wished she could do something to make the pain less...evident. She knew she couldn't save anybody. She didn't have the ability to and that was sort of painful for her. Being helpless.

"Oh, you underestimate my power of embarrassment." She snorted at the nudge, smiling up at him softly. "Or we could go back to my apartment. Or go some place warm." She suggested. "What do you wanna do?" She asked.

[Noah Washington]

"There's not really any choice. If I stopped for long enough to think about it I don't know what would end up happening." Noah replied, offering a small shrug with his shoulders. He supposed on some level that was a lie, because he knew what would happen. Things would fall apart.

After weighing up the options for a while, he nodded and moved away to stand up. He offered his hand out to her. "C'mon. You're off the hook, no more skating." He teased, "But since I told you something important about me, you could... Oh I don't know, maybe share something about yourself?" Of course she didn't really have to, but he was genuinely curious to learn more about her. He felt his knowledge so far was lacking.

[Valerie Danner]

Valerie smiled sadly down at her knee as she listened to him speak. She felt bad that she asked him to talk about it but it was out anyway. And besides, she now knew something about Noah that she didn't know before. "Well, if you need to let go...I promise to be here." She said, squeezing his arm.

Standing up with Noah's help, she laughed at his attempt to get something out of her. "Ah. Well." She racked her brains for something important in her life and came up with how she almost lost Spencer. It wasn't something about her but it was important. But it would be a little unfair to say something about Spencer without her permission so Valerie decided not to.

"I don't know if I've told you before but I'm really rather boring. So...the only thing I can think of is the fact that I broke my arm once. When I was eight I think? I was riding my bike down this slope that was next to a flight of stairs." She grabbed her sneakers and slid her feet in before tying it up nice and tight.

"I jerked a little in the wrong way and went down the stairs, got the handle bar poked right into my chest and landed on my left arm." She straightened up and took one arm out of her coat to pull up the sleeve to her sweater to show the long scar on her arm. "And I got a cast and everything which people signed and for like...two weeks, people thought I was the coolest kid on the block." She laughed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry I don't have anything else to tell you." She gave him a little smile.

[Noah Washington]

"I distinctly remember you telling me you were good at hiding things. That just made me think you had interesting things to tell." Noah replied, able to think back to the conversation they had. Underneath the stars, where he first indicated that there was more to his story than people ever realised. True, he didn't speak of it often to people, but it was still there.

Regardless of that, Noah listened as they walked back to where she lived. His eyes gave an impressed expression when she showed him the scar on her arm. He chuckled slightly when she said she thought she had been cool because of a cast. Noah offered a small nudge with his shoulder when she said there was nothing else to say. "You gotta give me something more. Like, where're you from? Do you have brothers or sisters? Did I ask that already?"

[Valerie Danner]

Valerie couldn't help but laugh at Noah's comment, shrugging at the implications of those words. "I've been taught to suffer in silence. And that's what I do. I bottle up emotions. Well...I used to think I was good at that." She laughed, not completing the statement because it would be weird for him if he heard the remainder of it. What she meant to say was that she used to be good at it until he came along.

She grinned widely at Noah's smile, pulling her sleeve down and tugging her coat back around her. "Well. Okay. I'm originally from North Carolina. I think I told you this but I'm cool with saying it again. I've got two younger sisters whom I adore to death no matter how annoying they are." She smiled affectionately. "There's Jess who's fifteen and would most likely have a stellar crush on you so be careful what you do around her. And Lacey who is three and would climb you like a pole. She...is a monkey." Valerie gesticulated as she spoke, laughing at some of the memories she was recalling.

A lot of the pictures on her curtain were of those two mucking about so maybe Valerie would show it to Noah with explanations.

"Okay," she breathed out a puff of air, sliding her arm effortlessly through Noah's. "Let's just play twenty questions. But instead of the usual schtick, we'll just ask random questions. You ready? Okay. Where were you when you had your first real kiss. Like...full-on went for it kind of kiss, not the peck on the cheek or on the lips."

[Noah Washington]

Noah raised his hand, waving it in front of his face lightly. "You did not tell me that one of them would have a crush on me." He pointed out. Because Noah assumed that it would be information that he would remember. He pointed over to her, "If she the one who can skate? Does she look a lot like you?" He teased rhetorically. There was no way he'd do anything like that, but it was fun to joke.

"Is that not the usual schtick?" Noah asked, unaware of how else to play the game. Aside from how usually annoying it was to turn questions around on each other. Y'know, unless he was the one doing it.

It was the kind of answer that he had to think of for a second or so before he could remember. He mused on the subject, twisting his lips from one side to the other. "And old enough to realise? I was thirteen, I think. First 'serious' girlfriend and all that. I asked her out and she said yes, and apparently it wasn't official until we kissed so... Yeah. That was it. We broke up like a few weeks later. Broke. My. Heart." He laughed it off, of course. By the end it was just another joke.

"So what type of person do you normally go for?" Noah asked. He knew that he was very rarely the type of person people were looking for, so he was a little curious.