Work Text:
N is Noé texting
L is Louis texting
-
From the outside, it looked like another student cramming for their next test, their next exam. It was late into the night and that room was one of many with the lights on.
Noé wished he were studying right now. That's not to say he hadn't done just that earlier, but he had finished quite early with his school work.
At 11pm he turned off the lights, happy that he could get a full night's sleep before tomorrow's exam.
At 12am, he still wasn't asleep so he decided to scroll through his phone until he felt tired enough.
At 1am, he turned on the lamp on his desk. He was irritated by the fact that he was losing precious sleep, but he decided to make the most of it by revising one last time.
At 2am, he was getting restless. He thought that maybe he was getting hungry, so, as any sensible college student, he, of course, made some instant ramen.
At 3am, he was pacing around his room. "Where could he be?", he asked himself. He was biting his nails again; an old habit he thought he got rid of long ago. Dominique had caught him a few times doing it when they were kids and had scolded him. She started painting his nails to stop him from biting them, which, to his surprise, had worked. It was either that or Louis telling him that he could become a curse bearer by doing that and the Hellfire Witch would come decapitate him. Either way, he stopped biting his nails after that. But, tonight, not even the awful taste of nail polish seemed to stop him.
At 4am he still hadn't calmed down. He came to terms with the fact that, although he disliked his roommate, he was still worried about him. He had never disappeared for this long. He hadn't seen him the entire day and, at this point, he was starting to think the worst had happened. Maybe the chasseurs had gotten to him? No, Vanitas was smart enough not to let himself get caught. Usually, the human would announce that he would leave for the day. He would always come back into their room, grab whatever bottle of cheap alcohol he had hidden under his mattress, bribe Noé with some Rosé, and then leave. Sure it wasn't the first time he had stayed out this late, but that had never happened on a school night before. He would oftentimes sneak out during the night though, but although he could be extremely silent, he would always make some noise "accidentally", which the vampire greatly appreciated. So therefore, considering Vanitas' habits, he started to worry that something might have happened to him.
It was now 5am. Noé had already lost count of the number of times he had called or texted Vanitas. He also tried reaching out to Dante, but he wasn't answering either. He was desperate enough to text both Jeanne and Louis. Only Louis had answered but, as expected, he was unhelpful:
N:Have you seen Vanitas?
L:Who? Never heard of him
N:Louis...
L:No, sorry, I haven't
The sun was beginning to rise, the sky slowly turning lighter shades of blue. The vampire was ready to grab his coat and run out the door to find his partner. Screw his 8am exam; he wanted to see Vanitas safe. He tried calling him one last time, to no avail. He was getting more and more worried by the second. It was decided. He would go looking for him.
As he opened the door, a drunk, sleepy, blue-eyed human reeking of cheap wine, shirt stained with God knows what, stumbled through. Noé sighed in relief. He could finally calm down and, soon after, exhaustion started to get to him. He shut the door behind his roommate and poured him a glass of cold water. He knew that when Vanitas would wake up, the hangover he would have would be a pain in the ass for him.
"Where were you?" Vanitas, already in bed, still wearing the dirty clothes, was just staring at the ceiling. Noé didn't want to deal with that now, but he didn't want the room smelling like crowded bar on a Friday night either.
He sat down next to the inebriated human and slowly started to help him get changed. It was a miracle that his body hadn't rejected whatever was in his system on the black, fluffy carpet Dominique had gifted Noé.
"Where were you?" He asked again, hoping for a response this time. Vanitas just started chuckling, but the vampire was glad his partner was safe.
"Dante and I crashed a frat party." Of course they did. But Noé found that he was already satisfied with the fact that he was finally back in their room. He didn't care for the details anymore.
"I don't remember..." he said sheepishly.
"What don't you remember?" said the vampire, concentrating more on changing the uncooperative human than on the conversation.
"I said I don't remember!" he snapped. "Dante... Dante said something..." he continued. "What did he say?"
Vanitas started laughing again. "He said that I like like you. Can you believe that?" He paused. He wasn't laughing anymore. He pressed his lips together as if he were thinking hard about something. Noé didn't say anything and hoped the man would further elaborate. He didn't know what to think so he continued taking care of his roommate.
"He might be right..."
"Vanitas-" But somehow, before Noé could finish the sentence, he realized that the human was fast asleep.
At 6am Noé started getting ready for class. He grabbed his bag to go down to the cafeteria to get breakfast and maybe a much needed coffee. He glanced back one last time at the sleeping Vanitas as he was closing the door.
"Maybe I like you too..."