Hollow Point

Daelen woke to sunlight streaming into the room and a comfortable warmth on his chest. He smiled, feeling content after a good night's rest. He hadn't woken up feeling so good in years. Almost against his own will, Daelen opened his eyes--and found the source of this warmth was, in fact, Noire, sleeping deeply on his chest, his arm slung carelessly around her shoulders.

He tensed, feeling the now familiar heat of embarrassment rush over him once again. He didn't want to wake her up...but he didn't think he could stay in this position, for it was no longer making him comfortable, but setting him on edge. Slowly, he nudged Noire's head, trying to slowly slip out from under her. The result was her head falling down onto the mattress. Daelen froze, waiting for this to wake her up.

Noire groaned quietly, lifting her head up and rubbing her eyes. "W-what happened? Are you okay?" she said groggily.

"Yeah," he said quickly, noticing that although she had gotten off his chest for the most part, he had never thought to remove his arm, which was now trapped underneath her. He tried to move over to no avail.

She felt him move his arm, which she just noticed was placed under her side. "Wait..was I..sleeping on you?" A blush crept up her neck and onto her cheeks as she lifted up so he was able to remove his arm.

Daelen retracted his arm and nodded, not looking at her. He sat up, moving backwards until he was lying against the headboard, and closed his eyes, still tired and not entirely willing to see Noire's reaction.

Noire frowned. "Was I drooling on you?" She slapped her forehead. "I'm so stupid. I'm sorry. I know it's really gross."

Daelen smiled in spite of himself and looked down at his shirt. "Not really, no," he replied.

"Good." she said with a smile. "You were really comfy." Noire hugged his arm. "Oh, and thanks for dropping my head. I'm assuming you were getting my head off of you?"

Daelen blushed. "Sorry," he murmured. "I didn't mean to."

She smiled and tugged on his arm. "Come on, let's go eat breakfast. You haven't tried anything until you've tried my mom's pancakes. They're amazing." She got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to brush up.

He smiled at the thought of pancakes, and got ready quickly, suddenly very hungry. While he waited for Noire to finish up, he sat on the edge of the bed, admitting to himself that if this was going to be how he woke up every morning, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
--
"So, do you like the pancakes, Daelen-kun?" Haruka asked, smiling as she passed the plate full of blueberry pancakes around for a second time.

Daelen nodded fervently, swallowing quickly. "They're delicious."

Haruka smiled. "I'm glad. Did you two sleep okay last night?"

Noire blushed at the mention of sleeping. "Yeah, we both slept like babies. It was nice being back in my old room again. Thanks for keeping it, Mom." She grinned before taking another bite of her pancake.

Daelen gulped down the last of his pancake and silently agreed. He had slept unusually good, and he was in an amazing mood. "Hey, Noire, can we work on teaching me Japanese once you're done?"

"Sure, honey." she said before sticking her tongue out at him. "We can go now." Noire turned to her mother and bowed. "Thank you for breakfast, Mom. It was delicious."

"Yes, thank you, Haruka-sama." Daelen took Noire's hand in a moment of boldness and they walked to the room with the comfy couch that he'd been eyeing last night.

She blushed, surprised at the sudden warmth around her hand. She went after Daelen, smiling and giggling until they got to the room.

He smiled at her laughs and pulled her down to the couch, letting go of her hand in the process. He felt suddenly embarrassed at his thoughtless hand-snatch, but ignored it and said, "So, how is this going to go?"

She looked at him and smiled, before leaning over and hugging him tightly. "I can start teaching you the basics, like how to ask for food or directions, in case we ever got lost from each other. Is that okay?"

Daelen blushed slightly, but found he was already getting more comfortable with the frequent contact. "Yeah," he answered. "That sounds okay for now."

She checked through the papers on the table until she found a blank one, grabbing the pencil next to it. "Okay, so, when you want to ask where you can find food, you say 'Doko de tabemono o kōnyū dekimasu ka?' okay? Try to say it with me slowly." She repeated the phrase again, watching Daelen move his mouth along with her.

The lesson went on like that for a few hours. Daelen was determined to learn it all, and he was a very fast learner. When they were taking a break, Daelen found himself asking about Noire's personal life back here in Japan, about her friends and family.

"And do you have any siblings?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah, I do. Only one though. He's my little baby brother. Boarding school called to him though, and that's why he's not here right now." She beamed, becoming very proud of him for getting into such a good boarding school.

"Oh," Daelen replied briefly, lost in thought about his own little sister...

"Yeah. His name is-"

Daelen nodded absently. "Hiroki," he cut her off.

Noire became confused. "Wait..have I told you about him before? How did you know his name?" she asked, a hint of panic in her voice.

He looked confused as well, but then realization seemed to strike. "Yeah," he said. "I remember now, you did mention him. I forgot all about you telling me you had a brother, though. Sorry." He grinned sheepishly.

Her smile returned to her face. "Oh, okay. You confused me for a minute." She yawned quietly. "Do you mind if I take a small nap?"

"No, of course not. Although I'm surprised you're tired again," Daelen replied, wondering what he was going to do while she slept.

"I know. I'm really sorry. I usually don't sleep that much. Some of the jet lag must be catching up to me. Not enough sleep, I guess." She handed him the remote. "I think all of the channels are in Japanese, but maybe they'll have English subtitles. You can look through them." She rested her head beside his legs and closed her eyes, beginning to drift off to sleep.

Daelen absentmindedly flipped through the channels, finally settling on an interesting looking anime. He watched the screen, not understanding what was going on, but not particularly caring at the moment. He glanced at Noire, who was in a deep sleep by now. He settled himself in for a long wait.

Shifting in her sleep, Noire sighed a bit. She opened her eyes slightly and saw Daelen's hand near her head. She smiled and grabbed it, pulling it close to her, before falling back asleep.

He was slightly taken aback when he found his hand trapped, but not uncomfortable. Actually, it was quite reassuring to hold hands with her, even if she was asleep.

Nearly an hour passed before Noire finally woke up. Realizing she was holding Daelen's hand, she looked up at him and smiled. "Hey, Daelen."

"Hey." He smiled back at her. "Your hair's all tousled," he said offhandedly.

"Fix it then!" she whined, before smiling. "Don't complain about it if you don't plan on fixing it. That's the rule. Duh, Daelen."

"I wasn't aware of any rules," he replied as he combed through her hair with his fingers to make it look presentable again. Her hair was dark and silky, and very soft to the touch. "You've got pretty hair," Daelen remarked, blushing.

The oh-so-familiar blush presented itself on Noire's cheeks as she smiled. "Thank you. Yours almost matches up to mine now." She glanced back at him and stuck her tongue out.

He ran his hand through his own hair self consciously. "My hair's really soft, too."

Noire turned herself around and faced Daelen. Subconsciously, she reached out and ran her hand through his hair. "You're right. It is very soft."

He felt his breath quickened involuntarily at her closeness. He leaned forward slightly, touching Noire's hair in response. "Not as soft as yours, though," he said, in a daze.

Her eyes connected with his as she leaned forward more. "But yours is still really soft.." she said in a whisper.

"Noire, I wanted to tell you-..Oh. Am I interrupting something?" Haruka stood in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear.

"Mom!" Noire yelled. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to tell you your father and I are going out for lunch."

Daelen scuttled backwards, blushing furiously. He didn't look Noire in the eye as he sat there, stewing in his own humility.

"Okay, Mom. Thank you for telling me." She watched her mother leave, before mumbling a few curse words under her breath. "I'm..I'm sorry about my mother. Also, about just before that." She blushed, starting to get up.

"Yeah, me too." He looked at the ground, perched uncomfortably on the edge of the couch.

"Let's go out and see some of Japan, okay? We can test out your newly found Japanese skills." She flashed a smile before running into her bathroom to get fixed up.

Daelen waited, anxious about how to act around her now. He knew that before Haruka-sama had interrupted, they were going to kiss, but he didn't know how he felt about that. Actually, scratch that, he thought. He felt really embarrassed afterwards, and now he felt incredibly awkward. He put his face in his hands and groaned.

Noire slipped out of the bathroom, a fresh coat of eyeliner and mascara lightly painted on. "What kind of stores do you want to go to? I'll tell you if we have them or not." she said, sitting down next to Daelen.

He just shrugged in response and didn't meet her eyes. "Maybe you could give me some suggestions?" he asked finally.

She frowned. "Well, there are a lot of really nice food stores. There's a comic book store right down the road. Or, we could just go walk around the streets and look around."

"Looking around would be fine." Daelen got up and stretched, feeling his bones crack. He looked down at Noire, feeling like a giant.

"Okay." she said, looking up at him. "You know, Daelen, you're one of the best friends I've ever had." She hugged him, placing her head on his chest, listening to his faint heartbeat.

He placed his chin on the top of her head, slowly putting his arms around her as well. "You, too," he said quietly. "Meeting you was a miracle for me."

"Yeah." Noire hugged him a bit tighter, before leading him outside to her car. "I've missed my baby." she said, rubbing the top of her car. "Do you know how to drive?"

Daelen looked at her oddly. "Of course not." He paused. "How old do you think I am?"

Noire tilted her head. "Well, we could start teaching you and you could get your license. I bet my parents would give you a car for a wedding present." She stuck her tongue out at Daelen and got into the driver's seat.

Daelen got in hesitantly, still not trusting the car not to crash. He didn't like even riding in a car, nevermind being the one actually driving it. Then he thought over what Noire had just said and cleared his throat uneasily. "About that...how long will this 'charade' last before we actually have to get married?"

Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. After today, she'd forgotten that they weren't really going to get married. She quickly wiped them away before Daelen could notice and backed out of her driveway, heading to the nearest park.

Daelen found Noire's lack of an answer concerning, and to be quite honest, confusing. The silence stretched on until they parked and he worked up the courage to ask, "Are you alright?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I don't much feeling like talking about it, though." She got out of the car and looked around at all the cherry blossom trees that were full in bloom. "I always came here with my parents as a kid. It was my favorite spot."

He looked around at the beautiful trees. "I can see why," he said in awe. "It's a really scenic place. It's got a very nice atmosphere," he noted.

"Yeah..my parents always looked so happy when they were here together.." Noire trailed off and looked at the ground, kicking a small rock by her foot.

She looked up at him and gave him a pained smile. "Because, Daelen. I'm not my parents, and I don't know if I could ever be happy like them."

He stepped closer to her. "Why not?" he asked in confusion. "You deserve to be happy, just like your parents."

Daelen caught her eye. "So why aren't you, then?" he asked in concern.

Noire shook her head again. "It's not that simple. They had such a perfect dating life since they were in high school. I never had anything like that."

"Neither did I," Daelen retorted. "But that doesn't mean it's too late to be happy. You're young and you have plenty of years left to find someone and visit the places you always wanted to with them."

Her attitude suddenly became very bitter. "Well, I'm frustrated, okay? Let's just go look around." She took off towards the river, where hundreds of people were standing

He followed her, hands pushed deep into his pockets, wondering why she was in such a bad mood. She couldn't possibly be so unhappy when even he wasn't, given his past. Although, he thought that he tended to appreciate life a little more, having been locked up for half of his. Wasting twelve years in a cold cell gave you a certain, more positive perspective on life.

When they both were standing at the water's edge, Noire picked up a few flat rocks. "Ever learn how to skip rocks?" she asked Daelen quietly, skipping one easily across the water.

He grinned briefly. "I'm obviously very rusty, but I was really good at it as a kid." He picked up a rock, inspecting it. Looking satisfied with its flatness, he glanced down at Noire. "I bet I can get mine further."

An unexpected smile bounced onto Noire's face as her eyes lit up. "No way. I've been doing this ever since I was 5. I'm a pro."

"And I've been doing it ever since I picked up a rock." Daelen raised an eyebrow in challenge.

Noire giggled and shoved him gently. "I'm going to beat you." She quickly found another rock and skipped it halfway across the wide river. "Beat that." she said, sticking her tongue out at Daelen.

Noticing how happy she was at the moment, and wanting to keep that gorgeous smile on her face, Daelen skipped his rock lightly, aiming it so it so it plopped into the water a little before where Noire's rock had sunk. He looked back at her, smiling. "Like I said, I'm rusty."

She jumped up and down, cheering. "I told you I was a pro!" She giggled and wrapped her arms tightly around Daelen's frail body. "You did well, too. For being a little rusty, that is."

"I'll get you next time," he wheezed against her tight embrace. "That was really good, though," he added, smirking.

Noire let go of him and instead, gently took his hand in hers. "They usually have little sandwich stands around here. Do you want to go look for one and go eat under a cherry blossom tree?"

Daelen tightened his hand around hers. "Sounds good to me." And so they headed down to one of the stands.

Noire ordered them both sandwiches, before leading the way to a vacant tree. "Are you enjoying it here, Daelen?" she asked before taking in a mouthful of food.

"Yes," he replied, taking a deep breath and looking around appreciatively. "It's so beautiful here. I could stay here for hours."

She finished up her small sandwich and rested her head next to Daelen. "Do you want to?" she asked, feeling herself turning light red.

He plopped down onto his back, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head. He took in another deep breath of fresh air and smiled. "Yes. If you want to, that is." He cracked open an eye to look at her.

"Of course I want to." Noire moved so that her neck was propped up by Daelen's side. "Is it okay if I lay like this?"

He looked at her, blushing as he said, "Almost," and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. He was instantly reminded of this morning when he woke and he closed his eyes, his blush deepening.

She looked up into his eyes and smiled, closing her eyes. "And you're okay with people seeing us together like this?"

Daelen paused at this, confused. "What do I have to be ashamed of?" he asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't sure if you were afraid one of my old friends would see me and come over. I was worried you'd be nervous to meet more people." She cuddled closer to him, her blush becoming more predominant.

"More people." He shuddered. "I am nervous to meet new people, but I can deal with it, if it makes you happy. It'll only get easier, anyways."

Noire nodded. "I wonder where my parents went for lunch.." She lifted her head up and looked around, trying to see if she could spot anyone she knew.

Daelen followed her gaze and was soon watching a couple on a bench some yards away from them. He wondered if Noire and he looked like that.

She tilted her head up towards him, scooting herself so her head was almost next to his. "What are you going to do after we break it to my parents we aren't really getting married, whenever that is?"

He frowned. "I don't know..." He trailed off and dread began to take over. What would he do? He probably would have learned Japanese by that time, but he's never had a job before, and he had no idea what he would do. Any future without Noire in the picture frightened him. He would be all alone in a foreign city. He shuddered at the thought. "Let's not think about that," he said hastily.

"Oh..okay, Daelen." Noire said quietly, turning her head to the side. Why did he have to change the subject? They were going to have to talk about it eventually, why not talk about it now? Sighing, she sat herself up and looked at the sky. "It's starting to get dark out. We should probably head home."

He nodded, standing and pulling her up with him.

She stood up, stumbling a bit. "Give me a piggy-back ride." she whined, giving Daelen a small half-smile.

He smiled back and bent down to let her hook her arms around his neck. Wrapping his arms around the back of her knees, he hoisted her up, remarking, "You're really light." He blushed and began walking to the car.

It was Noire's turn to blush. "Thank you, I think."

And when they both fell asleep later that night and Daelen wrapped an arm around Noire, there were no qualms about sharing the same bed.