♢Noel♢
My face felt like it was a volcano erupting. Elena just kissed me. Yeah sure it wasn’t a kiss on the lips, but it was a kiss on the cheeks and oh my god I was not expecting that.
‘Noel snap out of it. She asked you if you want to walk her back down to the dorms.’ Nori commented snapping me out of my trance that I was in.
I smacked my cheeks a few times and then grabbed my bag with the boffer swords sticking out of it and ran over to her with a stupid grin on my face. “Y-Yeah, sorry about that.”
We walked down the path as I held my phone out in front of us with the flash light app on so we could see where we were walking. “That was a lot of fun.” I smiled.
“It was. We’ll have to keep working on it.” Elena agreed.
“Maybe if we can have set date’s and do that instead of our normal training with Nori and Eevie…” I offered and she smiled with a nod.
“I think that could work. That way we’re also not over working ourselves.” She agreed.
“Maybe tomorrow at lunch we can figured out days that we want to do it?” I said and she nodded.
“Sounds good to me. That’ll give me time to jot down what times I get done with classes and what not.”
“I’ll do the same just to make it easier.” I said as looked back to where I was going. I kept stealing glances of her as we walked.
We made jokes with each other teased each other as we walked down. I was kind of upset when we made it out of the woods. I was really enjoying the time we had even with Yun telling me not to be so rough from time to time because I would tickle her and she would accidently trip over a root so I would make sure she didn’t fall. When we got up to the first floor of our dorm we said our good nights and she continued up the stairs as I went to my room. The door was locked, but with what time it was and Austin could have gone to get a late night dinner from one of the dinning halls.
I set my bag on my bed and Yun jumped off my head and landed on the bed next to my bag as I put the boffer swords away under my bed and pulled out my ihome and everything else that was in my bag before going to my closet and getting things ready for a shower.
“You had a lot of fun today it looked like.” Yun commented with a shit eating grin on his little face.
“I did. I was glad to see that Elena was having a good time. She was getting better towards the end of it. Next time I’ll be ready for when they switch that’s for sure.” I said confidently as I slung my towel over my forearm and grabbed my shampoo and body wash. “I’ll be back.”
“Enjoy your shower.” Yun said before I shut the door.
‘That was a plus that they had a good time. I’ll have to show you some of what I do with the sword. Also don’t forget to look up some different sword moves while you work on your homework after the shower.’ Nori instructed and I chuckled a little bit as I took off my shirt.
“Don’t worry I’ll make sure I do. Though it’ll probably end up being an anime so it doesn’t seem weird if Austin comes in.” I answered seeing as my desk was close to the door and he could easily see what I was doing on my computer when he would walk in.
‘We can make it work. It shouldn’t be too hard to modify the attacks if need be.’
“Sounds like a plan. I was going to look at one of my favorite anime’s for it. It’s what I was thinking about today for a few of the hits I made on Elena.”
‘Does Elena enjoy anime?’ He asked as I started the water and let the warm water hit my chest.
“Hua…I’ve never really asked actually. I think she likes books.” I let my hair soak in the water before washing it.
‘You should try and ask. It seems like a good conversation starter.’
“I’ll have to sometime.” I couldn’t help but smile for the umpteenth time today. “After the first speed bump your family seemed really nice and a lot of fun.”
‘They can get annoying sometimes, but I’m sure the same goes with your family.’
I chuckled keeping my eyes closed as the water washed the suds off my body and down the drain. “Yeah it does. My sister’s can get annoying from time to time. But I love them all the same.”
‘Same.’ He chuckled as I turned off the water.
“It’s just come to the point where we can have casual conversations as one of us takes a shower.” I laughed out loud lightly as I grabbed my towel from just outside the curtain and pulled to dry off.
‘Well we could just look at it as I’m just in the stall next to you?’
“Wait does that mean if we switch that you would be naked too???” I felt my face heat up. I still wasn’t too sure how all this worked.
‘Um…I don’t think so. I mean I’m still dressed now, but I don’t know about if we switched…this is a really awkward conversation.’
“Y-yeah, let’s switch to a different topic.” I wrapped my towel around my waist and grabbed my stuff.
Where I had the towel when I walked past the mirror I could see the bonding mark on my hip. For any demon who knows the noble clans and knows them well would be able to tell that it’s the Hira clan symbol wouldn’t they?
“Nori do you know the noble clan symbols by heart?” I asked as I walked down the hall.
‘I think I remember them all. Why?’
“Do you think that when all noble’s bond the symbol would be the clan symbol?” I walked into the room and put my stuff back in the closet as Yun laid on my bed eating an apple.
“This is the last apple.” He mentioned after swallowing his bite.
“Okay. I’ll grab a few from the dinning hall tomorrow. Then this weekend I’ll actually get more.” I nodded sitting down at my desk and flipping over my laptop. I pulled out my info sheet for my next paper and then got out a sketch book and a note book.
‘Noel, you didn’t answer my question.’
“Oh right sorry. I want to figure out what all the symbols to the noble clans are because if I can memorize them and since Eevie is a noble as well….” I started pulling up a word document for my essay and then hopping onto the internet.
‘Then if you can find where Eevie put the symbol on Elena you can figure out what clan she’s from.’
“Exactly, and we both know that neither of them will tell us any time soon. But at the same time it’s kind of invading their privacy since they’re not telling us.”
‘But at the same time if they see your bonding mark then they should be able to figure out the Hira clan if Eevie is is up to date with clan symbols.’
“Do we want them to know about what clan you’re from?”
‘Your apart of the family now too.’ My fingers flied across the keyboard as typed the introduction to my paper and then wrote out points on my notebook that I wanted to cover in the paper then went back to searching google. I looked up demon clans and variations but I came up with nothing when I did a direct searching. “Humm…”
“What are you thinking Noel?” I looked up at Yun who now had his head propped up in his hands laying across the bed.
I moved my hand up to my ear and pulled my pencil out from behind my ear and spun it through my fingers a few times then touched the tip to the paper and sketched out the Hira clan symbol. “I’m trying to look up the noble clan symbols, but I’m not getting anything from what I’m searching. That and I’m working on a paper. But the rough draft isn’t due till Friday and we have a work day in class for it tomorrow so I’m not really focusing all that much on it.” I explained as I finished up the clan symbol then wrote Hira clan under it.
“But I thought Nori told you all about the clans?” Yun gave me a questioning look.
I nodded, “He did, I just don’t know the symbols and I want to know them.” I responded placing my pencil in my mouth and typing in the school library search bar “The Legends of the Noble Demon Families”. I actually got something. There was a book that was called that in the mythology section. I wrote down the book number in my notebook and then went to you tube and looked up some Sword Art Online but went to a new tab and opened google.
“You want to know something don’t you?” Yun questioned with a smirk.
I looked up at him and picked up my pencil and flipped to a clean page in my sketch book. I drew a chibi version of myself then a chibi version of Nori. And finally another clan symbol. “My bonding mark is here.” I drew an arrow from the symbol to my chibi hip. “Nori’s clan symbol are in his ears.” I did the same to his ears.
Then I flipped to another page and sketched out a waist up of Elena with a soft smile on her face. “But where is her symbol placed…” I muttered shading in the image of Elena that I drew. “I haven’t seen it yet…” My semi realism looked fairly good with the picture of Elena. “And does Eevie have her clan symbol on her somewhere?”
“You want to figure out what noble clan she’s from so you can look more into it don’t you?” Yun hit the nail on the head.
I sighed, “What can I say I like knowing things. And I like finding things out.”
‘Why not get the book tomorrow and see what it has. If it doesn’t have to clan symbols I’ll draw them for you. I’m no where near as good as you are but I can at least give you simple designs.’ Nori offered and I nodded.
Yun looked up at the door and poofed into his small form. The smoke cleared just in time as Austin came into the room. “Sup.” I asked tipping my head back to look at Austin.
“Not too much, just went and had dinner with some friends is all. How long have you been back?” He asked sounding tired.
“Um…” I looked at the clock. “About an hour I want to say give or take.” I clicked off the good tab and played the amv that was the first one on the list. “Other then that I’ve just been working on homework after taking a shower.
“You hoping that Elena would come in, you normally done sit around shirtless. At least from what I can tell you don’t.” He chuckled
“N-No, I just had the water on too hot so I needed to cool off.” I looked away from him and clicked from the video to my paper and saved what I had done for it.
“That’s not what your sketch book says.” I felt my face heat up and quickly flipped the book over. “Awe come on that was a really good sketch.”
“It was nothing.” I answered quietly as I looked down at my hand that was still on top of my sketch book.
“Can I look?” Austin asked placing a hand on top of mine and sliding it off the sketchbook.
My heart pounded nervous. “I um…” I couldn’t get it out because he already had my sketch book flipped over. I watched him flip through the few pages that I had done in the sketch book. When he got to the picture of me and Nori my heart stopped. And I looked up at him through the corner of my eye. He looked like he was remembering something.
He smiled and chuckled a little bit then stood up straight again, “Your really good.”
“What was the smile and chuckle for?” I asked a bit panicked as he walked over to his bed and hopped up onto it.
“It’s not thing, don’t worry about it.” He waved his hand at me. “You have homework don’t you?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I have a test tomorrow in my bio class but I studied for that already and we have another work day on Wednesday for my art class so we’ll be getting out assignment for the weekend then. In my writing class we have a work day. So I don’t really have too much to do.” I answered frowning at him.
“Do you think he caught on to you and Nori?” Yun asked me.
“There’s that squeaking sound again. Where the hell is it coming from?” Austin asked and Yun slapped a hand over his mouth.
*♢*♦*♢*♦*♢*
♦Nori♦
“I don’t hear it.” Noel commented exiting out of the thing that was making pictures move. But left the search up and closed his lap top.
“Maybe it’s just me then.” Austin said looking up at the ceiling then he looked over at the clock they had in the room. “Oh wow it’s almost eleven already.”
“Yeah, time flies doesn’t it?” Noel chuckled as he got out his contact case and pulled out his contacts then put his glasses on.
“I’m going to go take a shower. You don’t have to keep the light on if you want to head to bed.” Austin stated grabbing a pair of shorts form his dresser then getting what he needed to go to the bathroom.
“Well I have to brush my teeth first so I’ll walk with you to the bathroom.” Noel commented getting his tooth brush and tooth paste.
They walked to the bathroom in silence then went their separate ways in the bathroom. ‘Something seems off with him today.’ I commented as Noel looked at his reflection in the mirror while he brushed his teeth.
“Um…I mean it is late. He could just be tired. Though I was confused with his look towards the picture I drew.” Noel mentioned.
‘Just keep a close on on things and try not to draw both of us on the same page for now on. If he asks about it just tell him it was a dream or something and the tattoo is something that just ended up in the character’s ears.’ I explained. I just wanted to be careful. He could have had that expression for different reasons. We can’t be reckless.
“Can do.” He said and then got his stuff and went back to the bedroom and turned off the light.
Yun crawled onto the pillow next to Noel’s head. ‘Can you have Yun sleep under the blankets with you tonight just to be safe.’ I asked.
“Yun, do you mind sleeping under the covers tonight. I promise I won’t roll onto you. I know your there so I’ll stay in one spot all night.” Noel asked.
“Oh yeah, after him hearing a “Squeaking" sound it’s probably for the best.” Yun agreed and got under the blanket with Noel. Noel set his glasses on the pillow by the wall and slipped his phone under the pillow with his alarm set.
Noel fell asleep but I did a mental switch with him and laid there in bed as the door creeked open and Austin came in. The door clicked shut and Austin tried to be quiet walking around the room. “Hey Austin…” I said and it made him jump.
“Dear god Noel, I thought you were sleeping. You almost gave me a heart attack.” Austin gasped.
“Sorry.” I laughed a little with Noel’s voice it was a little strange hearing his instead of my own. “What were you thinking when you looked at my sketch book and stopped at the page with the chibi’s?” I asked wanting an answer out of him but not turning to face him since Yun was also sleeping against Noel’s arm and I didn’t want to wake him.
“Oh, I just thought that I saw that face before is all. But I was probably just seeing things from a dream. What made you come up with the character on the page anyways?” I wasn’t ready for that question.
“Oh um…i-it’s a character that’s s-supposed to represent me in a story that I’m working on.” I totally lied and I felt like I was sweating bullets. Noel was the writer and the artist not me.
“Can I read your story sometime? With a character that bad ass I’m sure it’s an awesome story.” Austin said sounding excited.
“Um…let me think about it okay. I don’t even know if I’m going to write that story it was just a concept drawing.” I was panicking so bad right now. “We should probably get some sleep.”
“Your right. Night Noel.” Austin said and I heard him turn in bed.
“Night Austin.” I responded back and closed my eyes once again and let the sleeping Noel back in control.
The next morning came quickly, but Noel seemed fine and he didn’t seem all that nervous for his test. He shoved his laptop and sketchbook in his bag with his big eraser and extra lead for his pencil. He grabbed the sleeping Yun and left the room after he made sure that he had everything.
Noel struggled with a couple of the questions but he seemed to make it through just fine. Elena finished with the test before Noel. He was probably the 10th one done with it. But they were allowed to leave once they were done. Elena was waiting against the wall when he walked out. “So how do you think you did?” She asked pushing off the wall.
“Probably not as good as you. It seems like this stuff comes so easily to you.” He stated and she nudged him a bit.
“It’s for my major of course I’m going to get it. But I’m sure you did just fine.” She smiled at him. “So what are your plans.
‘Weren’t you going to find that book at the library?’ I reminded him.
“Oh right, I was going to go to the library and find a book to read.” Noel mentioned.
“Oh what kind of book? If your looking for something I’m sure that Alexa would be happy to let you borrow one of hers.” Elena offered.
Noel laughed, “Thanks but I don’t know if she’ll have the book I’m looking for.”
“What’s the book?” She smirked at Noel suspicion in her voice.
“I-It’s a mythology book.” He responded adjusting his bag and even I could feel his face heat up from the how close her face was to his.
“What kind of mythology book?” She cooed and she wrapped her arms around Noel’s.
‘Noel do a mental switch with me.’ I said and we did. “What’s the reward if I tell you?” I asked smirking.
She gasped a bit and pinched Noel under arm and it really stung. Tears came to my eyes. “Nori.” She hissed as we walked out of the building. “You’re being a jerk, I almost got it out of him.
“Ow, ow ow ow ow ow ow.” I cried as she pinched harder.
“Tell me what the book is.” She warned.
We walked behind a building on the back path. I couldn’t sense anyone around so I teleported away from her rubbing the under arm that she was pinching. “You don’t have to pinch so hard. I just wanted to have some fun Elena. We were gonna let you come to the library with us. It’s not like we could stop you from figuring out what it was. Besides it’s just a mythology book on the noble demon clans.” I answered.
“Will you come down out of the tree now. I’m sorry I pinched you.” She frowned a bit at me.
“Are you going to pinch me again?” I rose an eyebrow and she shook her head no. So I jumped down out of the tree and let Noel back in control. “P-Please done pinch me.” Noel panicked as Elena came closer to him.
“Oh good.” She smiled sweetly and then grabbed his wrist and pulled him along. “Lets go get that book!” Elena smiled happily. And even with being able to feel the pulsing from where she pinched Noel his body was the one with the small bruise that she made on his arm.
“Okay, okay.” He laughed stumbling after her trying to get his footing. She seemed just as excited about it as we were interested. I wonder what the two of them had planned. Was it the same thing in the long run?
