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veronicaphoenix · 6 months

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IKIGAI (or A REASON FOR BEING) — CHAPTER ONE

"She noticed there was something different about the boy's face. The almond shape of his eyes was accentuated, and Lia had never seen anyone with slightly Japanese features before. Although at the time she was a six-year-old girl who barely knew how to put a name to the most basic emotions, from that first time she saw Noah Sebastian she was taken with his features."

Warnings: This part of the story contains mentions of domestic abuse and substance intake, alcohol issues, child neglect and such, + sexual innuendos and events (if you squint).

Chapter tags: childhood, meeting for the first time, found family, Japanese folklore and mythology, mentions of parents' neglect towards children. Word count: 3.900 | Cross posted on AO3. | Series masterpost. ✧.*

Also, English is not my mother-tongue, so please bear with me and let me know if there's anything that needs fixing! :)

CHAPTER 1

Lia is 6. Noah is 7.

As a boy, when he lived with his grandparents in the United States and his grandmother walked him to school every morning, Noah spent hours enraptured in the Japanese stories and legends about honor, family, love and money that his grandma gladly shared with him as she enjoyed the afternoon breeze on the porch, with little Noah sitting cross-legged on the floor watching her wide-eyed and listening to her with more attention than he had paid at school.

At no time during those afternoons spent in the company of the only family he had left, with the birdsong in the background and the sound of wind chimes enveloping them in a blanket of comfort and peace, accompanied by the smell of grass and the scent of the flowers his grandmother so lovingly tended, did Noah think there was more to those legends than the magic those and myths carry, and that he himself would be caught up in the plots of those tales.

In a house plunged in darkness and shrouded in the stench of tobacco and damp, one November night Lia Parker was born, with big brown eyes and a desolate cry. The tears she shed during her first minutes of life could have filled empty lakes. The arms of a father who could have also cried when his daughter came into the world never came to hold her.

Sometimes, at night, she would cry for her mother's attention. She would hold her in her arms for a while, but when she got tired she would put Lia back in the crib and disappear, leaving Lia unsatisfied, her eyes still teary and her lip trembling.

Throughout her infancy, she lacked her mother's hugs, kisses and smiles. Instead, Lia spent her best moments in corners of the house, with toys and crayons that hadn't been meant for her, entertaining herself in a world that was not exactly real. Later, men began to arrive. Lia was still too young to understand who they were or what they were doing there. What she did know was that none of them were her father, and every day and every night that she saw them come in and out of the house, she looked at them with the longing of a child who has never known the love of a father but longs for it with all her innocent soul.

Lia began to understand what was happening at the age of five. She began to understand that something was not right at home, and that her life was not like that of other children. It was at that age when, one ordinary Saturday morning, Lia met Noah.

Lia was sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk in front of her house. She was bored, and the only thing that seemed to keep her a little busy was pulling weeds that managed to grow through the cracks in the pavement. She had grown tired of painting on the asphalt with the chalk her mother had bought her last week, after remembering that Lia's birthday had been last month. That day, she was wearing pants that were too small for her and a white T-shirt with dirty spots here and there. Her long hair was falling over her face. And she had a bruise on her elbow from the fall in the garden three days ago, when she had been chasing a brown rabbit. There was a nice breeze and it wasn't too hot. It was the perfect day for a picnic, although that was something Lia's mother would never do. She hated spending time outside. The bugs, the plants, the humidity... She hated all of those things. She didn't even have plants in the house. She said they were a nuisance, another responsibility she didn't have time for. For that reason, the garden at the back of the house was nothing more than a neglected patch of ground that had been taken over by mosquitoes, dragonflies, and a few moles. For Lia it was an adventure paradise. Sometimes she would spend hours counting the different types of flowers there. Other times she would try to catch the moles that lived under her house, and sometimes she would just sit on the porch steps, look around and draw and color in her notebooks. The house where Lia lived wasn't small, but it was too big for her and her mother. Despite how neglected it was and the dust that was gathering in the corners and especially in the rooms that no one entered, Lia took advantage of the situation and turned her home into a maze of possibilities and nooks and crannies where she could find something new to entertain herself with or learn from every day. It could be said that Lia grew up practically alone in those walls, because if her mother's negligence had come to be known by an outsider, Lia would have surely been taken away from that place in no time. However, it's not that easy to know what's going on behind closed doors...

Noah was the first person to cross that house's doors and find out. Unfortunately, Noah was just another kid like her, a year older, innocent and ignorant, and he had no power whatsoever in his hands to change the world, even though he was about to change someone's life.

The Saturday morning that Noah found Lia, Lia's mother was not at home. She hadn't even slept there, and Lia was already more than used to nights alone in the house, where dinners were reduced to the apples that weren't rotten in the kitchen and the odd bag of chips in one of the cupboards by the dashboard. Lia's room faced the back, and when the weather was nice she slept with the window open so that the sound of crickets would drift into the room and keep her company.

Noah was riding his bike that morning with two other friends, schoolmates and neighbors. Of the three, Noah was the quietest, but also the most curious and the most determined. So he hung back when he saw the girl sitting on the sidewalk, crestfallen and hiding her face behind a curtain of brown hair. He slowed down, put his feet on the ground and watched her. She did not seem to notice him. She was engrossed in pulling weeds, as if there was nothing more interesting to do that day.

There was something strange about her. Noah couldn't see it, but he could definitely feel it, otherwise he wouldn't have stood a few feet away from her and wouldn't have been watching her for a whole minute without saying anything.

Noah had seen girls before, of course. He was always surrounded by boys and girls and when he wasn't at home with his grandparents he was at Nick's or Mike's or at some birthday party, but he had never seen one alone, in the middle of the street, and with no adult in sight.

A butterfly fluttered around Lia and landed in her hair. Lia must have noticed it, because she raised her head and tried to find the suspect, only succeeding in getting the butterfly to take flight again and fly away from her, doing a dance in the air that seemed to mean 'see you soon'.

"Hi," greeted Noah, still self-absorbed. Lia noticed his presence and landed her big brown eyes on the boy in the middle of the street. Noah was sure he had never seen anyone with eyes like those before. She looked surprised, as if she wasn't used to seeing people passing by, and suddenly, she smiled, showing her milk teeth. "I'm Noah".

"Nowah?" She tried to repeat it very slowly. She had never heard that name before. She dropped the last grass clippings she had plucked from the ground and rubbed her palm on her pants.

"Noah," he repeated, a little louder this time. "What's your name?"

"Lia." She said her name with her chin up and her smile even bigger, happy to be able to tell someone who she was, to let them know she existed.

"I like it."

"I like it too," Lia replied, shaking her shoulders. She noticed that there was something different about the boy's face. The almond shape of his eyes was accentuated, and Lia had never seen anyone with slightly Japanese features before. Although at the time she was a six-year-old girl who barely knew how to put a name to the most basic emotions, from that first time she saw Noah Sebastian she was taken with his features.

"Your parents let you be out here alone, on the street?"

Noah's question didn't surprise her. Lia responded by telling him that she didn't have a father, and that her mother didn't mind her being there. At that point, she knew that her mom was a weird mother. She did things that other parents didn't. Then she frowned and cocked her head a little bit to the side, examining Noah and the bike he was riding.

"Do your parents let you be out on the street with your bike? It's dangerous, isn't it?"

Noah wanted to tell her that he didn't have a father, either, and that he barely saw his mom, but decided to refrain from doing so.

"I'm not alone," Noah replied. "Nick's mother is walking Rudolph," he pointed to a woman approaching from a distance, holding a German shepherd on a frayed black leash. "Besides, we're just walking around the block. Nick and I live three blocks up the street." He waved his arm again and pointed down the street behind him. Lia had only crossed that street a few times, when she'd had to accompany her mother to routine doctor's appointments when they couldn't afford the bus fare.

"Do you and Nick live together?" Lia was interested. She could imagine how much fun it must be to have friends or siblings and live with them.

"No, we're neighbors".

"So we're neighbors too?" She asked, the smile creeping back onto her lips. There was a tiny dimple on her right cheek.

Noah found himself smiling in return.

"I guess. Do you have a bike?"

Lia shook her head.

An approaching car honked and Noah stepped aside, moving in penguin strides so he could drag the bike with him. He took the opportunity to move a little closer to Lia, who pushed her hair out of her face with one hand. Her cheeks were red from the sun.

"If you had a bike you could come ride with me, Nick and Mike. Sometimes we go to the lake, Nick's parents let Rudolph loose, and we pedal really fast until Rudolph catches up."

"My mom doesn't have money to buy me a bike. And we don't have a dog either."

"Do you have roller skates?"

She shook her head again.

"My mom says only rich people have those things."

Noah frowned.

"I'm not rich, but I have some I don't use anymore. I could give them to you."

"I don't know how to skate."

"You can learn."

"Why do you want to give me your skates? Is your name really Noah? My mother says we shouldn't talk to strangers, and we shouldn't tell lies."

One of the few sensible things she'd ever said to her daughter.

"My grandmother says that too," Noah replied. "But you're not a stranger. You're a child, like me."

Lia moved her shoulders up and down. He seemed to have a point.

"My mother won't teach me to skate."

"I can teach you. Can you ride a bike?"

Another 'no'.

"Do you want me to teach you?"

Before Lia answered, Noah had swung a leg over the trunk of the bike and was steering it by the handlebars to Lia. She stood up, running her hands down her pants to wipe them off.

"Here you go".

Lia looked at Noah uncertainly, somewhat fearfully, but then he smiled at her and said he would hold the bike while she pedaled.

He tried to remember how his grandfather had held the bike while he taught him to pedal, a year before. While it was effortless for him to hold the bike when he was on it, with Lia's weight and from the side it wasn't so easy.

When Lia lifted her feet off the ground, the bike wobbled, and Noah pursed his lips, frowning at the strength and amount of focus it took to keep the bike upright. Lia's hair was streaming down her face and her knuckles were white from the grip on the handlebars. At that moment, the safety of her tiny body depended on Noah, the boy who had taken a shine to her uniqueness and who'd been kinder than her own mother had ever been to her.

A few yards away from them, down the opposite street, Nick's mother was approaching, holding Rudolph back to keep him from running off in the direction Nick and Mike had gone, ahead of Noah, who always stayed behind prying or enraptured in the sounds coming from places he couldn't see. She didn't want to raise her voice, so the woman hurried to catch up with Noah and the girl he was with and find out what was going on.

Noah waited until Lia had her feet on the pedals. The girl was wearing worn white Adidas sneakers, with a hole in the toe of the left shoe, and colorful socks. He instructed her to pedal. As soon as she did, a car came around the corner at the other end of the road, startling her. She let go of the handlebars and stood up straight. The movement of her body induced a flow of weight that Noah was unable to handle, and in less than three seconds, both Lia and he were on the ground, Nick's mother rushing over with Rudolph running beside her, and the bike lying on the road.

Noah pulled himself to his feet. He had fallen on his butt and barely hurt himself. Nick's mother grabbed him by the shoulders to examine him with wide eyes. He could only look at Lia, who was sitting on the floor and staring at her knee, where the fabric of her jeans had torn and a little blood was leaking out.

"Honey, did you hurt yourself?" Nick's mother was quick to ask before Noah could react.

The car had passed by, and now the ones approaching were Nick and Mike, pedaling as if their lives depended on it. Rudolph had also approached Lia and sniffed her.

Despite the stinging that was coming alive in her knee, Lia could only think about Noah's bike, and whether it was her fault in case it was broken. Her lower lip trembled, but she made an effort to keep herself in check, as she had so often done at home when her mother had reproached her for crying too easily, and she pushed her hair out of her face to shake her head and give the grown woman a look of redress.

"You're bleeding," Noah stated.

"Honey, are your parents home?"

Lia shook her head. Again.

She saw the woman look in the direction of her house with a frown, uncertainty crossing her face. She was thinking about something.

"Is there someone we can call?"

When Lia shook her head one more time, the woman gave a sigh and helped her to her feet.

"What happened?" Nick, who had just caught up with them and slowed down, asked. Next to him, Mike did the same. They both looked at Lia with the same curiosity with which Noah had looked at her the first time. "Who are you?"

"My name is Lia. I'm six years old," she answered. "I'm sorry," she said next, turning to Noah.

He was about to answer when Nick's mother decided that Lia should walk with them until they were back home, where she could tend to her wound and disinfect it, and then take her back to her house and, if it wasn't too much, wait for her parents to arrive to explain what had happened. As usual, she wondered the same thing Noah had asked her: how a girl of her age was alone in the street, without adult supervision.

"It will heal by itself," Lia muttered, touching her wound. "I fell in the garden the other day. Look," she showed her the wound on her elbow.

Nick's mother felt a tugging feeling inside her.

"When there's a wound, you have to tend it, honey. Make sure it doesn't get infected".

Without further ado, she touched Lia's back and urged her to join them. Behind them, Noah picked up his bike, all in one piece, and they all started moving back to their street. Rudolph stuck close to Lia and spent part of the journey raising his head to her and looking at the girl with something which appeared to be a smile. The dog managed to relieve some of the burning sensation she felt in her knee. He even made her laugh softly a couple of times. Nick and Mike asked her questions from their bikes, some slightly uncomfortable questions, and Noah remained behind the group, pushing his bike silently and not taking his eyes off Lia's back. There was a stain there that looked like an airplane.

Lia never set foot in Nick's house, at least not that day. She would do so later, when she was a little older and Nick invited her to his birthday party, where she would see him play the drums for the first time, a hobby his father had been fond of since he was very young.

Lia was taken care of at Noah's house, a place that was undoubtedly in better condition than hers and much nicer. The first thing that struck her about the place was the number of different plants and flowers that filled the front garden. Lia literally ran up to one of those plants and knelt down, placing a small hand just below the flower's petals as she looked at it with her eyes wide open and her mouth agape. Rudolph had pulled Nick's mother to run after her and stopped beside the girl, looking at her curiously. Lia looked at the flowers as if they were a treasure.

"It's a marigold!"

"How do you know?" Noah asked, dropping the bike on the other side of the garden and crossing the stone path to stand next to her.

"I really like flowers."

"So does my grandma."

No doubt Noah's grandmother loved flowers; she had spent much of her life studying and caring for them in her own garden.

Lia first saw Noah's grandmother just two minutes after she became enraptured caressing the petals of the marigold flower. The woman was an older, short lady with long white hair pulled back in a bun. She was dressed in a long summer dress covered by an apron when she opened the door and welcomed her into her home. She had the same eyes as Noah, though the almond shape was even more pronounced.

Lia couldn't hide the smile that crossed her face.

From the first moment, sixty-five-year-old Hana proved her gentle demeanour and was delighted to have a guest in her home. She welcomed Lia without prejudice, although Noah knew his grandmother well enough to recognize some of the typical adult expressions, and he knew early on that his grandma felt uneasy and worried about the little girl. Hana had asked her a few questions, had asked about her parents, about her mother, and all she got were disinterested answers, some even elusive, and she didn't like the way Lia looked either: wild hair, small and worn clothes, the torn sneakers, and whatever it was that was hiding in that girl's big brown eyes.

As she cleaned and disinfected her knee wound, Hana told Lia about flowers and how many of them she had in the garden. She told her that once she returned home and told her mother what happened, she could ask for permission and go back there and help her tend the flowers if she felt like it. They only lived three blocks away.

From the side of the couch, still standing, Noah watched as his grandmother tended to Lia and as the girl nodded her head vehemently, elated and not at all bothered by the intrusion of the alcohol on her torn skin. Noah thought she was a very strong girl. He got hurt months before and had burst into tears as his grandmother applied an alcohol-soaked gauze pad to the wound.

With Lia's cleaned and a band-aid over it to protect it, Hana stood up and asked the children if they were hungry. They both nodded. When they were left alone, Lia looked around, impressed by the cleanliness of the place and the amount of interesting and strange things in every corner. She was about to get up and start browsing, but then Noah asked if she wanted to see his room, and Lia gave in to following him upstairs.

"Where are your parents?" She asked suddenly, before reaching the first floor. Although she had been engrossed in the house, the part of her that missed her own mother prompted her to ask Noah about his own, and about his father, too, of course.

"I don't know my father," Noah replied without bothering to turn around and look at her. He continued walking toward his room at the end of the hall.

Lia held her breath for a couple of seconds. She had thought she was the only person in the world who didn't know her father, but then there was Noah. How strange and... wonderful, at the same time. She didn't feel that lonely anymore. She could share her ache with him and he could share it with her, if he needed to. They would learn to manage that complicated pain in their hearts together.

"And my mom... I haven't seen her in a while. Maybe she's with your mom."

The suggestion made Lia shake her head.

"No. My mother doesn't like other moms," Lia replied, entering Noah's room. "She's always with men."

Downstairs, Hana thought about how curious it was that a girl like Lia had caught her grandson's attention, although, come to think of it, maybe it wasn't so strange. Noah was a curious, determined and daring child, sometimes even fearless, which worried his grandparents too much, and Lia was unlike anything he had known so far. Despite the concern for the child, Hana decided to focus on preparing Noah and Lia something to eat, at least this way she would make sure Lia ate something, because she was very thin, and then she would walk her home, with Noah's company, of course.

However, Hana, loaded with knowledge about her home-country's culture -a Japan that to this day was far from what it'd been during her childhood-, couldn't help but return to all those legends and myths she had heard about from her elder relatives when, that same afternoon, Noah, returning home after putting the bicycle in the garage, approached her to show her the red thread he had found tangled in the bike's pedal.

The string had come loose from one of Lia's socks, and now he was holding it in his hand.

#noah sebastian fic #bad omens fic #bad omens fanfiction #noah sebastian x ofc #noah sebastian x reader #bad omens band #the inevitability of love at second sight #ikigai #noah sebastian

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veronicaphoenix · 6 months

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IKIGAI (or A REASON FOR BEING) — CHAPTER NINE

“Can you shift a bit?” She asked, her morning voice also carrying a subtle raspiness. “No, it’s so comfy,” he murmured, snuggling into the pillows, oblivious to the world. “For you,” she replied, her cheeks tinted with a blush. “You’re poking me with… Erm, your thing… It’s hard.” She pressed her face into the pillow. Noah’s warm breath was on her hair and the back of her neck.

Chapter tags: best friends, teenage drama, sleepover, a bit of angst, fluff, and slight 'sexual' content. | Word count: 3.361 | Cross posted on AO3. | Series masterpost. ✧.*

CHAPTER 9

Lia is 14. Noah is 15.

A week later.

Noah waited for hours, sort of hidden behind the bushes of Lia’s neighbors, until he saw Cristina leave the house.

Finally.

Lia hadn’t been answering his calls, and she had closed the door on his face twice when he went to see her. The third time it had been Cristina who had opened and, of course, she had told him to get lost. The exchange could be summarized down to that.

With no other options available, he used the key to get inside Lia’s house. He called her name a couple of times as he moved around the ground floor, not wanting to startle her, and he saw her sitting on the porch steps to the back garden. The glass doors that led to the backyard were open, so she had probably heard him, but her posture and the fact that her back was facing him told him that she didn’t care.

He walked to her, with slow, deliberate steps.

The morning sun cast a warm glow on the porch, creating a subtle contrast to the growing emotional chill between them. Lia’s hair was open, long and wild, and as he approached her, he noticed she had some flowers stuck in it.

When he stepped in the porch, the floorboards creaked.

“Why are you here?” She asked.

He waited until he was sat down next to her on the wooden steps. She was making a flower crown with daisies.

“You haven’t let me get near you in seven days, Lia.”

“You abandoned me.”

“I didn’t abandon you”, he retorted, slightly angry at her choice of words. “I’ve been coming to see you nearly every single day, to check on you. That’s not abandonment. If anything, you decided to abandon me.”

At that, she looked at him.

He continued, “Have you stopped to think if I needed you any of those days? If I wanted to talk to you? To see you?”

“You won’t need me when you go away.”

I’ll need you always.

He let out a huff, aware of the complexity of the situation. He ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit.

“I’m not here to argue with you. I’m here to make things clear, Lia. You didn’t even give me a chance to explain; you just shut me out.”

The change in his tone, proving how tired he was, might have made its way into Lia’s veins, as she also let down that façade of strong girl and dropped her shoulders, looking at him with sad eyes. She let the half-done daisy crown fall on the last step and she leaned her body on the railing.

“What is there to explain?”

“Many things, in fact. Will you listen?”

She nodded, fidgeting with her own fingers. A few birds flew by, crossing the garden high up in the sky, and Noah and Lia followed them until they disappeared before they delved into the conversation.

“You know the basics. I have friends at school, but I’m not friends with all that nonsense they’re teaching, or at least, if it’s of any use, I’m not good at it, and I’m tired of feeling like a failure for being examined just like every other single student in this planet. I don’t know why the hell they expect us all to be the same. The only thing I’m good at is music, and next year they’ll be removing that subject, so what’s the point in staying?” He shrugged, a gesture that carried the weight of his uncertainty. Lia remained silent, absorbing his words. “I know for you it’s exactly the opposite. You’re such a brilliant student, Lia. I don’t know how you do it. I admire you, honestly. I wish I was half smart of what you are, but I know you struggle making friends, that you don’t feel comfortable with your classmates. I feel like some of the fault for that is mine, for having been… Overprotective or, I don’t know.”

“It’s not your fault…” She whispered. “It’s just how I am, and I understand your point…”

Noah looked at her with a pained expression, understanding and regret in his eyes. The weight of their individual struggles and the complexities of their friendship was pressing down.

“I hadn’t been thinking about dropping out of school for long, that’s why I didn’t mention it to you. I didn’t even take it seriously the few times it crossed my mind, but I was talking to Mike and to other friends last week and I started considering that maybe it’s not such a crazy idea. A lot of teenagers drop out of school. I’m not crazy. Then, the same day that I thought about talking to my grandparents about it, before I even gathered the courage, they told me that they’re going to allow my mom to stay with them for a while, to help her recover from her addiction, to give her another chance… And I thought, this is it.” He took another breath and then he extended his arm, and his fingers looked for Lia’s until he found them. He held her hand, which was now smaller than his, and ran her thumb along her skin. “I spent the whole week wanting to talk to you, wanting to let you know how I’m feeling about this, about my mom coming back. You think you’re hurt? I’m fucking heartsick, Lia. I should be happy at the thought that my mom is coming back, that she might get better, that I might have a chance to feel like I’m somebody’s son. But the truth is I’m not. I don’t want to see her. I don’t even want to call her my mom for the same reasons you don’t like calling Cristina yours. She’s never been there for me, and I know I won’t be able to survive a single day in the same house as her. You’re stronger than me, Lia. You’ve been surviving here since the day you were born. But I’m fifteen now. I cannot deal with any more bullshit like this. If I do, I’m sure it will keep me from achieving my goals, I’ll go mental, and I don’t want her to fuck up my life the way she fucked up hers.”

His throat had gone dry. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he was resolute that he wasn’t going to cry. He looked up, trying to swallow his tears and untighten the knot in his chest.

“When Mike suggested I move in with him, I immediately said yes. I didn’t even think about it because I knew that was the only solution. And you know what I thought next?”

She waited for his answer, her expression a mix of concern and anticipation.

“I thought where do I fit Lia in this? She fits somewhere, I just have to figure out where.”

“And…?”

“And I got an answer. I was thinking that, maybe, after you graduate, you could come live with us, with me. Mike’s a nice guy, and his house has plenty of rooms, and he’s willing to rent them. I know it’s still too early to think about it, but I would love to if you were there with me. And I don’t want you to worry about money. Money will come, I’m sure. I want us to work on it, starting from this summer. I want to use the songs you wrote, if you’re ok with it, and we could compose music for them. I want to start working on that, and I also thought that, if you enjoy drawing so much, you could make the designs for the band’s merch. When there’s a band, of course.”

With his intentions laid bare, Lia’s eyes widened, and her heartbeat sped up.

“You really thought all of that?”

“And more,” he responded, his smile radiant with genuine excitement.

Lia felt her emotions bubbling up within her as the weight of Noah’s plans and the depth of his consideration sank in.

“Noah,” her voice quivered with vulnerability. She was about to start crying. “I’m scared,” she admitted. He squeezed her hand harder. A couple of tears escaped from her eyes. Noah put the other hand on her head and pulled her forward until his chin was on top of her head and her face nestled against his chest.

“I’m scared, too, but not of losing you, not of losing each other.”

“I’m sorry about what I said to you.”

“It’s okay. I know that was like dropping a bomb,” he admitted. “I should have talked to you earlier. So, what do you say?”

Lia lifted her head.

“About what?”

The air around them seemed to hold its breath.

“Well, you have to give me an answer; tell me if you would like to move in with me and Mike when you turn eighteen.”

Lia couldn’t help but smile at his best friend’s bright expression. “Do you even need an answer?” She teased.

His smile widened, and suddenly it seemed that all his worries were gone.

“But Mike smells weird,” Lia continued, making a face. “What if the house smells like him?”

Noah chuckled.

“He smokes weed sometimes, that’s all.”

They shared a smile. Noah’s hand moved to Lia’s hair, fingers carefully untangling the flowers that were stuck. “Now, let’s finish this crown, what do you say?”

Lia nodded. Noah picked up a few flowers from the wooden step and pretended to know what he was doing. Lia observed him, a curious grin playing on her lips. Noah had no fucking clue on how to make a daisy crown, and before she knew it, laughter bubbled out of her at the way he was mistreating the little flowers.

“Never mind,” he concluded, shaking his head. “You do it. I’ll put it on your head when it’s done.”

“Deal,” she replied, her laughter still echoing through the quiet space of the porch.

As Lia skillfully weaved the flowers into a crown, Noah watched with genuine amusement, appreciating the care and precision she put into each delicate twist. The wooden steps became a makeshift workshop for their impromptu crafting session.

When the crown was finally complete and Lia had a floral masterpiece adorning her hair, they looked at each other, smiles spreading across their faces. The shared accomplishment brought a sense of lightness to the air, a moment of simple joy that momentarily eclipsed the rest of the world.

“Noah?” She called his name gently. There was a request coming, and he was willing to do anything.

Another bird landed in the grown grass of the garden and looked around as if lost. A tiny creature, unaware of the troubled lives in front of it. While Lia looked at the bird, Noah kept looking at her, and he couldn’t help but admire the way her freckles spread across her nose and cheeks, and how her eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings every time she closed and opened her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Can you stay the night?”

“What about your mom?” He worried, concern creasing his brow.

“She’s gone. She said she’s not coming back until Saturday or Sunday.”

“I can stay,” he said without another thought. “Let me call grandma, though.”

As Noah reached for his phone to make the call, Lia couldn't shake the warmth that spread through her. The weight of everything else still lingered, but in that moment, there was a sense of ease, and she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to spend that night alone.

Hana let him stay the night at Lia’s but couldn’t refrain from making a few remarks about the fact that she was letting two teenagers sleeping alone in a big house. Her concerns, however, were more about mischievous teenage behavior than the solitude itself. Noah waved her off with a disgusted expression and a few disapproving noises when she subtly mentioned something about hormones and such, and that Lia was a good girl and that he should treat her right, although he couldn’t deny that he was carrying a condom in his wallet. One of Mike’s friends had given it too him two weeks before, during one of their meetings to talk about music. There was no connection, but it was kind of expected that young adults would bring the topic of sex to him, a teenager. At least he was glad they did it with the intention of making sure he was safe and so was whoever was with him. Not that he had any intention of using it any time soon…

As the day unfolded and evening came, Noah and Lia opted for the convenience of a frozen pizza that had been languishing in the freezer for months. The whirr of the microwave filled the air as they prepared some popcorn, adding a touch of movie night charm to their impromptu plans. The cozy aroma of melted cheese and the crackling of popcorn accompanied them as they settled on the sofa, ready to enjoy their feast while Final Destination started playing on the TV.

The clock ticked away, and by around eleven p.m., the remnants of their meal were cleared and the movie had come to an end. They made their way upstairs, to Lia's room, the only place in the house that felt a bit like a sanctuary of comfort and familiarity. Noah, feeling the ease of their shared space, decided to make himself comfortable, stripping down to his underwear while opting to keep his T-shirt on. Meanwhile, Lia disappeared into the bathroom to change into her pajamas, allowing Noah a moment to explore Lia's cupboards in search of an extra pillow.

The atmosphere in Lia's room was infused with a quiet intimacy as they prepared for the night ahead. The soft glow of ambient light filtered through the curtains, casting a warm and soothing hue over the room. As Noah finished deciding between a square or a more rectangular pillow, Lia grabbed a book from the nearest pile to the bed and settled in the left side of her bed to read for a while. Five minutes later, the sound of Noah brushing his teeth in the bathroom faintly resonated through the hallway and into the room.

An hour later, they were both fast asleep. The occasional murmur of turning pages and the gentle hum of the night left behind. Lia’s body was curled up in a fetal position, facing the window, while Noah sprawled out, his limbs occupying a significant portion of the mattress, legs and arms everywhere. Unconsciously, his fingers tangled into Lia’s long hair, creating an unintentional but tender connection between them.

Throughout the night, the room witnessed a dance of unconscious movements. Lia, wrapped in her own dreams, occasionally pulled at the bedsheets. Noah, embracing the depths of slumber, would instinctively gravitate towards her warmth whenever a chill lingered in the air.

By morning, the room told a silent story of the night, with Noah finding himself wrapped around Lia, their bodies intertwined in a sleepy, yet comforting embrace—his arm was draped protectively over her tummy, and their legs were entwined at the end of the mattress.

The soft morning light filtered through the curtains. Lia had been awake for nearly an hour when she called out for him.

“Hmm?” he mumbled; his voice still heavy with sleep.

“Can you shift a bit?” She asked, her morning voice also carrying a subtle raspiness.

“No, it’s so comfy,” he murmured, snuggling into the pillows, oblivious to the world.

“For you,” she replied, her cheeks tinted with a blush. “You’re poking me with… Erm, your thing… It’s hard.” She pressed her face into the pillow. Noah’s warm breath was on her hair and the back of her neck.

In an instant, Lia felt Noah's entire body stiffen. She didn't see it, but he shot his eyes wide open, a look of terror on his face. He looked down, frantically trying to assess the situation, and then, with an almost comical haste, he rolled on the bed, narrowly avoiding falling off the other side.

Lia stifled a laugh as she watched his reaction, her amusement evident in the playful sparkle in her eyes. Noah, now redder than she was, attempted to gather his composure, covering his bulge with his hands, while shooting her an embarrassed glance.

“Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… You know… This happens sometimes and I… Huh… Fuck.”

“It’s fine,” she said, trying to keep her eyes on his face. She remained surprisingly composed. Noah was not sure if he liked that smile plastered on her face. She bit her lip, and he thought: oh, oh.

“Can I touch it?”

There it was.

“What?” He mumbled, his drowsy, still groggy mind struggling to process her words, his eyes narrowing against the intrusive morning light.

Did she just ask if…?

“I’ve never touched one and I’m curious.”

“Lia, what the…” The embarrassment and bewilderment on his face just kept on increasing. “Ugh, no.” He stammered.

“We’ve already kissed. What’s the harm? I promise I’m not going to put my hand down your pants or anything. I just want to… Can I?”

This girl certainly knew how to keep him on his toes, and she would definitely drive him mad someday.

“One touch, and then you move away, understood?”

“Yes, sir,” she joked, saluting him with an exaggerated gesture, her hand resting on her forehead.

Noah couldn’t help but roll his eyes, a blend of amusement and exasperation crossing his features. Lia’s playful antics were both endearing and maddening.

As he reluctantly agreed to her proposition, Lia shifted on the bed, moving to sit on her knees in front of him, who was still standing by the bed, covering his erection with his hands. He looked up at the ceiling to avoid seeing Lia’s eyes wander on the bulge on his underwear. She looked beautiful in the morning light, with her features still hinting that she had been dreaming, but he didn’t want to look at her while she did… that.

He moved his hands away.

A few seconds later, he felt Lia’s fingertips pressing once, twice, against his erection.

“It’s… Harder than I thought.”

Noah swallowed, counting the seconds.

“It’s like… Hard clay.”

“Okay, congratulations on your discovery.”

His hands went back to where they had been three seconds before, and he turned around, walking away from the bed.

“Does it always get this hard?” She asked, deadpan serious.

“Stop asking me these questions. It’s uncomfortable,” he replied as he put on his jeans, that had been discarded on the floor near the piles of books.

“Uncomfortable was having that thing pressed against my back for an hour,” she retorted with a snort. Seating herself back on the bed, she proceeded to gather her hair in a ponytail.

Noah rolled his eyes again as he made himself comfortable in his trousers.

Sensing his distress, which she still found amusing, by the way, Lia ushered to say: “Okay, sorry. Go to the bathroom and do whatever you have to do.”

“I don’t have to do anything!” He snapped, bothered by the whole ordeal.

“That’s not what I meant, idiot. Wash your face or take a shower. I don’t know.”

The banter continued throughout the morning, with Lia teasing him and Noah shooting death glances in return. Fed up with the ongoing banter, he seized his opportunity when they were making pancakes in the kitchen and retaliated by covering Lia’s face with the batter.

“If you would just wear yesterday’s crown, I’d say you look like the most beautiful princess in the world.”

Lia, initially frozen in place, couldn’t hold her laughter. She hurried to swiftly swap some batter from the bowl and began chasing Noah around the kitchen and into the living room.

The morning, which had started with a hint of awkwardness, effortlessly transformed into a lively scene. Laughter filled the air as Noah and Lia engaged in their impromptu food fight, grabbing at each other, and running their dirty hands all over each other’s faces and bodies, smearing their skin with the whitish sticky paste.

#noah sebastian fic #noah sebastian #noah sebastian x ofc #noah sebastian x reader #bad omens fic #bad omens fanfic #ikigai #the inevitability of love at second sight

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