#( x. if only i could stop this fear of dreaming like i'm dying | musings. )

[irethepotato]

Welcome Home

Warnings: SFW, Hurt/comfort

Characters: Noelle, reader

Noelle x reader

Lol, take this as an apology for that sabotage I sent you @shinyglaceonice.

What? Did you really think I'm going to use bread against you?

Hehehehehe, nope~ If I have an idea and motivation, I'm planning to write these as an apology for the sabotages I sent to all my moots.

Be sure to read this before continuing on to make this fic sense.

Noelle sighed for the umpteenth time that morning as she carried her luggage to the carriage.

She was leaving Mondstadt.

And she won't be back for a long time.

People always thought of her as someone who never gives up, always giving her all and if that fails, she'll try and try again until she achieve her goal.

But she given up.

How could she be strong when she saw you walking down the street with Eula by your side that chipped her resolve bit by bit? A beautiful smile on your face that never fails to brighten her day, now made her heart dropped as she saw you smile at Eula.

Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, she thought to herself, I'm probably overreacting.

So, she decided to confront you.

She expected for you to talk to her. Hopeful for some sort of explanation.

What she didn't expect was for you to just walk past her quickly without saying a word.

And that

That broke her heart.

She should hate you.

She should hate you for treating her this way.

But she couldn't.

How could she hate the first person who believe in her, the one who took her dreams as a knight seriously?

After a couple of days of going back and forth on what to do

She decided

If she could not hate you, then she would leave you.

She will leave Mondstadt.

Before the pain in her heart swallows her whole.

She quietly resigned from the Knight of Favonius recruitment and quickly made arrangements to move to Liyue before she changed her mind.

She wanted to ask someone else, someone she greatly trusted, about whether she made the right decision or not.

But the only person she trusted wholly was you...

And you're not with her.

You're with Eula.

And she could not bear to tell anyone else.

She may not be a maid of the Knights of Favonius anymore, but she still abide to the most important rule of the maid;

A maid is required to keep everyone's secrets.

And she will keeps yours until her last dying breath.

After checking her inventory once again, she looks at the walls of Mondstadt for the last time, taking in every single detail into memory.

Perhaps she would come visit in the future to meet up with Amber and the others.

Once the hurt in her heart quells, she will come back.

For now, she needs time and distance.

"Noelle!" a voice that she knew all too well call out to her, breaking her from her musings.

Not believing her ears, she turns toward the source of the voice.

She couldn't believe her eyes.

It was you.

You were running towards her with a frantic look on your face, eyes widened in fear and desperation. She was so shocked, she almost didn't notice the covered basket you were carrying on your arm.

"Don't, huff, leave, huff, me, huff, please." you pleaded breathlessly. You grabbed hold of her forearm firmly but gently.

Did, did you ran from your home after reading the letter all the way here just to stop her from leaving?

"I am so so sorry, Noelle!" you exclaimed, your eyes full of regret and desperation. "I treated you like shit this past week and I didn't even give you a reason why! I messed up. I should've just explain upfront about what I was doing instead of just panicking and ignoring you like an idiot. Please, Noelle, let me explain why I was so off all this time."

Your shoulders sagged in relief when you saw her nodded wordlessly.

"Thank you for giving me a chance," you began. "Do you remember what date today?"

She didn't expected that question to come out of your mouth. Her eyebrows furrowed a bit to remember what date today is.

It is the second of October. What was so special abo-

Her eyes widened in realization as she remember why.

"Wait, isn't today..."

"Yes, it's our first anniversary together." you said in relief, grateful she remembered why today was special. "I wanted to do something special for today. But I wanted to surprise you! So I wanted to learn how to bake some pastries from Eula. At first I wanted to ask Amber but well, you know how her cooking skills is like. But whenever you were around while Eula was showing me where to buy the best ingredients to use, I kinda panicked and just walk passed you. It was stupid of me, I

know, please forgive me!"

You fumbled the basket in your arms to open up the flap as you blurted out your explanation.

Her eyes widened at the sight and delicious aroma of baked pastries.

Cupcakes, croissants and eclairs decorated with messy hearts and flowers. In the middle of it all was a two-layered cake with a messy message written on it.

'Happy 1st Anniversary! To another year and more to spend with you.

The pastries were not at all perfect. The frosting on the cupcakes were just a tad bit runny, the shape of the croissants look closer to be a rectangle than a half-moon shaped, the eclair filling was spilling a bit and the hearts and flowers that decorated on all of them were crooked. The only thing that was close to perfection was the cake. By a maid standards, they won't even be given a consideration to be serve due to the imperfections.

She absolutely love them.

She didn't realized she started tearing up until you hesitantly wiped a tear away, afraid if you accidently overstepping her boundaries.

She huffed out a small laughter as she leaned into your touch.

"I thought you hated me. I thought you didn't love me anymore."

"No! I could never hate you, Noelle. I love you so much that I would cross an ocean for you. Please forgive me. Don't leave me, please."

"Okay, I won't leave you."

Without prompting, you closed the distance between the two of you to embrace her, not caring the basket awkwardly hanging from your arm.

Bringing her waist closer to yours as you rest your head on her shoulders while she rests her on yours. You let out a shuddering breath.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

----

Inspired by bread week.

No, I will not elaborate. That's for me and my moots to know and the rest of you to never find out lol.

Also I kinda have this planned out since the start of ebg but I added the bread part a bit later on cuz you can't go wrong with bread nodnod